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272Mechanisms and the Evidence HierarchyTopoi 33 (2): 339-360. 2014.Evidence-based medicine (EBM) makes use of explicit procedures for grading evidence for causal claims. Normally, these procedures categorise evidence of correlation produced by statistical trials as better evidence for a causal claim than evidence of mechanisms produced by other methods. We argue, in contrast, that evidence of mechanisms needs to be viewed as complementary to, rather than inferior to, evidence of correlation. In this paper we first set out the case for treating evidence of mecha…Read more
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Discovery in medicineIn Miriam Solomon, Jeremy R. Simon & Harold Kincaid (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Medicine, Routledge. 2016.
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82Evaluating evidence of mechanisms in medicineSpringer. 2018.The use of evidence in medicine is something we should continuously seek to improve. This book seeks to develop our understanding of evidence of mechanism in evaluating evidence in medicine, public health, and social care; and also offers tools to help implement improved assessment of evidence of mechanism in practice. In this way, the book offers a bridge between more theoretical and conceptual insights and worries about evidence of mechanism and practical means to fit the results into evidence…Read more
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207Modelling mechanisms with causal cyclesSynthese 191 (8): 1-31. 2014.Mechanistic philosophy of science views a large part of scientific activity as engaged in modelling mechanisms. While science textbooks tend to offer qualitative models of mechanisms, there is increasing demand for models from which one can draw quantitative predictions and explanations. Casini et al. (Theoria 26(1):5–33, 2011) put forward the Recursive Bayesian Networks (RBN) formalism as well suited to this end. The RBN formalism is an extension of the standard Bayesian net formalism, an exten…Read more
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22Response to Open Peer Commentaries on “A Radical Approach to Ebola: Saving Humans and Other Animals”American Journal of Bioethics 19 (1). 2019.
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40A Radical Approach to Ebola: Saving Humans and Other AnimalsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 18 (10): 35-42. 2018.As the usual regulatory framework did not fit well during the last Ebola outbreak, innovative thinking still needed. In the absence of an outbreak, randomised controlled trials of clinical efficacy in humans cannot be done, while during an outbreak such trials will continue to face significant practical, philosophical, and ethical challenges. This article argues that researchers should also test the safety and effectiveness of novel vaccines in wild apes by employing a pluralistic approach to ev…Read more
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22From Information to Cognition: The Systems Counterculture, Heinz von Foerster's Pedagogy, and Second-Order CyberneticsConstructivist Foundations 7 (3): 196-207. 2012.Context: In this empirical and conceptual paper on the historical, philosophical, and epistemological backgrounds of second-order cybernetics, the emergence of a significant pedagogical component to Heinz von Foerster’s work during the last years of the Biological Computer Laboratory is placed against the backdrop of social and intellectual movements on the American landscape. Problem: Previous discussion in this regard has focused largely on the student radicalism of the later 1960s. A wider-an…Read more
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456Causation and melanoma classificationTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 32 (1): 19-32. 2011.In this article, I begin by giving a brief history of melanoma causation. I then discuss the current manner in which malignant melanoma is classified. In general, these systems of classification do not take account of the manner of tumour causation. Instead, they are based on phenomenological features of the tumour, such as size, spread, and morphology. I go on to suggest that misclassification of melanoma is a major problem in clinical practice. I therefore outline an alternative means of class…Read more
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25Making sense of failure (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 48 122-125. 2014.Essay review of C. Timmermann A history of lung cancer: The recalcitrant disease (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2014)) and C. Timmermann, E. Toon (Eds.), Cancer patients, cancer pathways: historical and social perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2012))
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15Mapping the methodologies of Burkitt lymphomaStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 48 210-217. 2014.