Epidemiology \nis attracting increasing philosophical attention\, even though most \nphilosophers know very little about epidemiology\, and philosophy of \nepidemiology is not yet a part of regular philosophy of science \ncurricula. Epidemiology rewards philosophical study for several reasons\,\n but particularly because it is such a poor fit for standard \nphilosophical pictures of science. These pictures tend to place emphasis\n on explanatory theories and experiment as central features of science\, \nyet neither is central to epidemiology. This fact prompts a recasting of\n the entire realism debate in philosophy of science\, and means that many\n well-known positions on the nature of science do not apply to \nepidemiology.
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The purpose of \nthis conference is to offer an opportunity to philosophers of science to\n engage with epidemiology\, and to encourage epidemiologists\, \nstatisticians\, lawyers\, social scientists\, and others with relevant \ninterests to explore the philosophical aspects of the discipline \nfurther.\nEpidemiology attracts philosophical \nattention because epidemiologists deal explicitly with conceptual \nquestions to a greater extent than scientists in many other disciplines.\n Working epidemiologists devote time and energy to publishing papers on \nthe nature of causation\, methods of causal inference\, and the nature and\n role of statistical significance testing\, for example. Epidemiology \nalso raises important questions about the relation between general \n(population) and singular (individual) causal claims\, nowhere more \nclearly than in the context of litigation. Epidemiology is often central\n to litigation because it deals with phenomena whose underlying \nmechanisms are not well understood. Thus there are circumstances where \nepidemiology provides the only evidence available to prove or disprove a\n causal link between wrong and harm. However\, epidemiologists deal in \ngeneralities\, and litigants are individuals (or classes thereof). It is \nboth a philosophical and a legal question how evidence for a general \ncausal claim relates to the attempt to prove singular causal claims.
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN. Registration is free but places are limited. \;
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