Staff

Publication details for Professor Nancy Cartwright

Cartwright, N. (2016). Single Case Causes: What is Evidence and Why. In Philosophy of Science in Practice: Nancy Cartwright and the Nature of Scientific Reasoning. Chao, H. & Reiss, J. Cham: Springer International Publishing. 11-24.

• Publication type: Chapter in book
• ISSN/ISBN: 9783319455303 (hardback), 9783319455327 (ebook)
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45532-7_2
• Further publication details on publisher web site
• Durham Research Online (DRO) - may include full text

Author(s) from Durham

• Professor Nancy Cartwright

Abstract

How do we establish singular causal claims? It seems we do this all the time, from courtrooms to cloud chambers. Nevertheless, there is a strong lobby in the evidence-based medicine and policy movements that argues that we cannot make reliable causal judgments about single cases in these areas. So we cannot tell whether a policy or treatment ‘worked’ for any specific individual. This paper argues the contrary. It provides a catalogue of evidence types that can support singular causal claims, and it develops a theoretical framework that shows that these types are evidence for causation in the single case.

Notes

Also Durham University: CHESS Working Paper No. 2015-02.