ON THE DISCOVERY AND USE OF CAUSAL FACTORS: THE CARTWRIGHT’S APPROACH

Abstract

There exist drawbacks when we move from the discovery of causal knowledge to its use. Sometimes the problem is related to differences in the background conditions. Other times it may be associated with an extreme case of external validity, where the information obtained in one context can only be extrapolated to others of identical circumstances. These problems have been developed by Nancy Cartwright, who in the recent years has offered an alternative to solve them. In this sense, the goal of the present paper consists of examining its main thesis, which will be divided into three: (1) the overconstraint of economic models, which impedes the very discovery of causal factors, (2) the problem of how to bridge between factors discovered in one  context and used in another one, and (3) the author's proposal to deal with these problems and thus succeed in policy implementation.