Causation, models of disease and epidemiology

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Alex Broadbent (Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
• Thursday 30 April 2009, 16:30-18:00
• Seminar Room 2, History and Philosophy of Science, Department of.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Lauren Kassell.

In the nineteenth century, many cases of disease previously thought to have diverse causes began to be explained by the action of a single kind of cause, e.g. a certain parasitic infestation. Some have argued that this conceptual shift was key to the advancement of medicine through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The focus of much recent epidemiology, however, is on chronic non-communicable diseases, which frequently do not seem to be attributable to any single causal factor. This paper is an effort to resolve the resulting tension. I propose a ‘contrastive’ multifactorial model, on the grounds that it links the notions of disease and of general explanation, while avoiding the philosophical naiveties and practical difficulties of the monocausal model.

This talk is part of the Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Infectious Disease
• Cambridge Infectious Diseases
• Cambridge talks
• Department of History and Philosophy of Science
• Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science
• Featured lists
• History and Philosophy of Science long list
• Philosophy Events
• Seminar Room 2, History and Philosophy of Science, Department of
• Trust & Technology Initiative - interesting events
• hc446
• jer64's list

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.