The Tangle of Science

Nancy Cartwright and her colleagues steer us from the norms of scientific method to the variety of products—and of evidence—that make the tangle of science reliable. I was struck by the scope of the enterprise and the broad applicability of its findings: from a discussion of continuum and particulate models of flow, to explanations for why democracies don't fight one another or public health interventions fail. Lively and engaging, this book will be of interest not only to philosophers, but to both consumers and producers of science, and among both the natural and social science tribes. * Stephan Haggard, University of California San Diego *
In the late 20th century, academics debunked the myth that science was reliable by virtue of its use of a singular method—"the scientific method" —or because scientists were preternaturally objective and rigorous. But if there is no scientific method, and scientists are fallible humans like the rest of us, then what makes science reliable? In this important book, Nancy Cartwright and her colleagues argue the answer is the ways in which the various practices and products of science—theories, methods, experiments, instruments, classification schemes, habits of data collection, forms of analysis, measuring techniques and more—work together and become mutually constitutive and supportive. Scientific knowledge, they argue, is a product of the interplay of all the ingredients that go into it. A must-read for anyone who cares about how science really works. * Naomi Oreskes, Harvard University *
Drawing upon a wealth of examples from past and present science, from the physics of temperature to the archaeology of the Dead Sea scrolls, The Tangle of Science makes a strong case that we should replace truth by reliability as the ultimate goal of scientific inquiry. Clearly written and boldly argued, this is a book for everyone who wants to know why we should trust science—and which science to trust. * Lorraine Daston, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin *
The Tangle of Science stands front and center of the wave of exciting new work on the nature of science that puts aside a fixation with narrowly epistemological notions such as confirmation and objectivity to examine without philosophical preconceptions, and in a way that embraces the non-cognitive, technological, and social dimensions of science, how scientists succeed at getting to grips with the world. Its picture of science is refreshing, provocative, and I think largely correct. * Michael Strevens, New York University *