American Journal of Epidemiology
American Journal of Epidemiology
5 years ago

Hill's Heuristics and Explanatory Coherentism in Epidemiology.

Olaf Dammann
In this essay, I argue that Ted Poston's theory of explanatory coherentism is well-suited as a tool for causal explanation in the health sciences, particularly in epidemiology. Coherence has not only played a role in epidemiology for more than half a century as one of Hill's viewpoints, it can also provide background theory for the development of explanatory systems by integrating epidemiologic evidence with a diversity of other error-independent data. I propose that computational formalization of Hill's viewpoints in an explanatory coherentist framework would provide an excellent starting point for a formal epistemological (knowledge-theoretical) project designed to improve causal explanation in the health sciences. As an example, I briefly introduce Paul Thagard's ECHO system and offer my responses to possible objections to my proposal.

Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx216

DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwx216

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