DALLAS (SMU) – Nancy Cartwright, considered one of the most important and influential contemporary philosophers of science, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Southern Methodist University (SMU) during the university's commencement ceremony May 12.
Cartwright is a professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science and in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego. The author of seven books, she has produced groundbreaking work on issues such as the nature of physical laws, causation and scientific reasoning. She is a pioneer of today's practice-based philosophy of science and helped develop the philosophy of social policy, economics, sociology, medicine, epidemiology and political science.
Cartwright is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) and a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
SMU also will confer an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will deliver the commencement address. SMU expects to award approximately 2,100 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in the University-wide ceremony at 9:30 a.m. at Moody Coliseum on campus.
SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.