European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (4):1-27 (2021)
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Abstract |
Evidential Pluralism maintains that in order to establish a causal claim one normally needs to establish the existence of an appropriate conditional correlation and the existence of an appropriate mechanism complex, so when assessing a causal claim one ought to consider both association studies and mechanistic studies. Hitherto, Evidential Pluralism has been applied to medicine, leading to the EBM+ programme, which recommends that evidence-based medicine should systematically evaluate mechanistic studies alongside clinical studies. This paper argues that Evidential Pluralism can also be fruitfully applied to the social sciences. In particular, Evidential Pluralism provides (i) a new approach to evidence-based policy; (ii) an account of the evidential relationships in more theoretical research; and (iii) new philosophical motivation for mixed methods research. The application of Evidential Pluralism to the social sciences is also defended against two objections.
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Keywords | Evidential Pluralism causality evidence correlation mechanism social science |
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Reprint years | 2021 |
DOI | 10.1007/s13194-021-00415-z |
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References found in this work BETA
Thinking About Mechanisms.Peter Machamer, Lindley Darden & Carl F. Craver - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (1):1-25.
Across the Boundaries: Extrapolation in Biology and Social Science.Daniel Steel (ed.) - 2007 - Oxford University Press.
What is a Mechanism? Thinking About Mechanisms Across the Sciences.Phyllis Illari & Jon Williamson - 2012 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (1):119-135.
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Citations of this work BETA
The Feasibility and Malleability of EBM+.Jon Williamson - 2021 - Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science 36 (2):191-209.
Limits to evidential pluralism: multi-method large-N qualitative analysis and the primacy of mechanistic studies.Rosa W. Runhardt - 2022 - Synthese 200 (2):1-23.
Resolving Empirical Controversies with Mechanistic Evidence.Mariusz Maziarz - 2021 - Synthese 199 (3-4):9957-9978.
On Laws of Politics and How to Establish Them.Erik Weber - forthcoming - PS: Political Science and Politics.
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