Lesen Sie diesen Text auf Deutsch
DIE ZEIT: Physics and its laws lie—that is what you said more than 40 years ago, and it made you famous. Would you still call physics a liar today?
Nancy Cartwright: I would no longer write a book that accuses physics of lying in its very title. These are not good times for such a title; it can easily be misunderstood. Trust in the sciences has declined to an alarming degree. And in some areas, I can even understand why.
ZEIT: What do you mean?
Cartwright: I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, in what is now the Rust Belt. I know people there whose livelihood depends on whether the mines stay open. They cannot afford to believe that burning coal is bad for the environment. We all find our truth in our own surroundings, even if those surroundings are virtual. We derive it from the people around us, the ones we rely on. For many in the Rust Belt, the social system has not worked, and science is part of that system.
