Stefano Canali (Leibniz Universität Hannover)
Background: Philosophy and Epidemiology
Most of the philosophical scholarship on epidemiology has focused on causality, by looking at causal explanations and interpretations of epidemiological results in terms of causal claims (Broadbent, 2013). In this poster, I take a different approach and present an account of contemporary epidemiology based on the notion of evidential claims. Building on philosophical analyses of data practices in biology (Leonelli, 2016) and evidential reasoning in archaeology (Chapman and Wylie, 2016), I argue that focusing on the dynamics of evidential claims enables to identify distinct approaches, methods, and types of evidential reasoning at work in epidemiology.
Focus and Methodology
I use a philosophy-of-science-in-practice approach and take a close look at ongoing environmental epidemiology that applies the “exposome approach” and investigates the totality of exposures faced by individuals (Russo and Vineis, 2017). I ground my analysis on qualitative interviews, participatory observation and discussions with researchers in the EXPOsOMICS project (http://exposomicsproject.eu).
Evidential Claims on the Exposome: Three Strategies
My account based on evidential claims enables to identify three main strategies employed to generate evidential claims. Each strategy encompasses a distinct approach to the phenomena under study; a distinct kind of work that researchers carry out; and a distinct type of evidential claims.
These three strategies are:
1. The macro strategy, which generates scoping claims that restrict the sample and provides an initial understanding of the phenomena under study; it can be seen in the initial selection of data from cohort studies.
2. The micro strategy, which is applied at various steps of research (omics analysis, geographical information systems and experimental studies) to collect data of significantly different types and generate evidential claims on structures at the microscopic level of investigation.
3. The association strategy, that uses evidence from the macro and micro strategies to generate evidential claims at the statistical level of associations between environmental exposures and outcomes of interest.
Discussion
I argue that distinguishing strategies for evidential claims yields significant insights. It enables to unpack the epistemic issues and challenges that concern each strategy and, in turn, influence research done at a different stage. It gives a characterisation of the context of data practices in terms of evidential claims, which shows how much epidemiological research is not necessarily about causal claims, but neither is to be overlooked as producing ‘raw data’. In this way, it provides a new philosophical perspective on the epistemology and practice of epidemiological research at the interface of environment and health.
