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The Epidemiology Monitor obtained a preview of
a chapter in a new book being written under contract by Alex
Broadbent on the Philosophy of Epidemiology. According to
Broadbent, there are six striking features of epidemiology as a
science which differentiate it from other sciences. Here they are:
1.
Epidemiology is centrally concerned with finding out about
causation, either for its own sake or to make a prediction. It is
not at all concerned with discovering “laws of nature”, developing
grand theoretical frameworks, measuring constants, or anything
else.
2.
Theory does not feature prominently in epidemiology. Epidemiology
does not have a proper domain of theory, where theory is
understood as making claims about the nature of the world.
Instead, epidemiology develops methods. The expertise of an
epidemiologist is methodological.
3.
Experiment does not feature prominently.
4.
The methods of epidemiology are domain insensitive.
Epidemiologists count things, and then draw conclusions by
comparing the results of different counting exercises. The limits
of what we can count and compare are well outside the limits of
what is medically significant.
5.
The centrality of population thinking. Populations (and not just
the individuals making up those populations) are thought of as
bearing health-related properties.
6.
The stakes are high. The cost of failing to make a correct
inference may be as high as the cost of making an incorrect
inference. This is in contrast to many other sciences where the
cost of failing to make a correct inference is merely slow
progress. |
