Epistemic causality and evidence-based medicine

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Medicine
• Causal Inference

Background:

• Causal claims are frequent in biomedicine but often implicit.
• Traditional accounts of causation focus on difference-making or mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the meaning of causal claims specifically within the context of disease.
• To advocate for the epistemic theory as the appropriate framework for medical causality.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis of causation in biomedical contexts.
• Critique of traditional causal accounts (difference-making, mechanistic).
• Argumentation for the epistemic theory of causation.

Main Results:

• Causal claims in medicine should be understood via the epistemic theory.
• The epistemic theory emphasizes appropriate inferences (diagnoses, prognoses) over physical causal relations.
• This interpretation has significant implications for evidence-based causal assessment in medical practice.

Conclusions:

• The epistemic theory provides a more suitable framework for understanding medical causality.
• Adopting the epistemic approach can refine evidence-based causal assessment in healthcare.
• This perspective shifts the focus from physical mechanisms to inferential validity in medical reasoning.