In writing the article on the Philosophy of Epidemiology, we spoke with Alex Broadbent, philosopher at the University of Johannesburg. In that conversation and in some of Broadbent’s writing, we were struck by the unexpected ways in which he formulated and expressed familiar ideas in epidemiology or articulated new ones. Below are some excerpts from our readings and conversations with him.

On Epi

“Epidemiology employs the methods of natural sciences, but it is so closely tied with human concerns that in some forms it might also be seen as a social science.”

On Dangers

“…epidemiologists cannot be simply technicians. They must also have some appreciation of the conceptual foundations of the discipline, and in particular of the issues arising in the [philosophical] areas. If they do not, then they are likely to commit errors, such as exhibiting an unwarranted bias towards the null hypothesis, failing to properly balance the risk of different kinds of errors, making bad causal inferences, of failing to make good ones.”

On Causality

“It is important to continue to stress that there is no formal or algorithmic method of causal inference, and that causation itself is not well-conceptualized or understood.  Any claims to the contrary are false, and, in the context of epidemiology, dangerous.”

On Concepts

“…appreciation of the conceptual foundations of the discipline, and of the persistently informal, unalgorithmic nature of key components of its methodology, is essential to its success.”

“If working epidemiologists and policy makers possess some understanding of the live conceptual debates in epidemiology then they will be better able to avoid erroneous certainty.”

On Risk

“The epidemiological use of the word “risk” often does not correspond to risk as it is commonly understood, or as it is understood by philosophers studying risk.”

“As epidemiologists use the term, “risk” has no application to the individual.”

More On Epi

“Epidemiology is a particularly uncertain activity, because epidemiologists are often studying associations about which little is known.”

“…epidemiology has elements in common with both natural and social sciences. Its methods may be scientific, but is objectives are often thoroughly human.”

 

“Epidemiology is in large part a collection of methods for finding things out on the basis of scant evidence, and this by its nature is difficult.”

On Methods

“It is important that epidemiologists and epidemiology students, appreciate that there are methodological problems in their discipline which have not been solved, and where conceptual work is still necessary to reach even the most pragmatic goals.”

On Population Data

“…there is an open philosophical question about what the exact rational bearing of population level data on an individual is.”