“Causation: What Can Be the Use of It?

Nancy Cartwright, a professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics, will deliver New York University’s Annual Lewis Burke Frumkes Lecture on Monday, November 16, 7:30 p.m. at NYU’s Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center (100 Washington Square East [at Washington Place]). Cartwright’s lecture is titled “Causation: What Can Be the Use of It?” [Subway Lines: A, B, C, D, E, F, V (West 4th Street); R, W (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place)]

The lecture is hosted by New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Science and the Department of Philosophy. The event is free and open to the public, which may call 212.998.8320 for more information. 

Cartwright, who is also a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego, is a philosopher of the natural and social sciences who works on issues of causation, modeling, and objectivity. Much of her current research is concerned with how to improve evidence-based policy. Her published works include: How the Laws of Physics Lie (1983); Nature's Capacities and Their Measurement (1989); Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics (1995), a co-authored volume, The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science (1999), and Hunting Causes and Using Them (2007).

The Frumkes Lecture was established to showcase the work of the world’s most prominent philosophers and is supported by NYU alumnus Lewis Burke Frumkes. Past lecturers have been: Jonathan Lear, Susan Wolf, Harry Frankfurt, Noam Chomsky, Simon Blackburn, Peter Singer, Dame Onora O’Neill, Bernard Williams, and Jonathan Bennett.