Evidence amalgamation in the sciences: an introduction

Fletcher, Samuel C.; Landes, Jürgen and Poellinger, Roland (23. June 2018): Evidence amalgamation in the sciences: an introduction. In: Synthese, Vol. 196, No. 8: pp. 3163-3188

Abstract

Amalgamating evidence from heterogeneous sources and across levels of inquiry is becoming increasingly important in many pure and applied sciences. This special issue provides a forum for researchers from diverse scientific and philosophical perspectives to discuss evidence amalgamation, its methodologies, its history, its pitfalls, and its potential. We situate the contributions therein within six themes from the broad literature on this subject: the variety-of-evidence thesis, the philosophy of meta-analysis, the role of robustness/sensitivity analysis for evidence amalgamation, its bearing on questions of extrapolation and external validity of experiments, its connection with theory development, and its interface with causal inference, especially regarding causal theories of cancer.

• Item Type: Journal article
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 639276
• EU Projects: Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Starting Grant > ERC Grant 639276: PhilPharm - Philosophy of Pharmacology: Safety, Statistical Standards and Evidence Amalgamation
• Keywords: Variety-of-evidence thesis; Meta-analysis; Sensitivity analysis; Extrapolation; External validity; Theory development; Causal inference; Causal theories of cancer
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) > Epistemology
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy; 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 120 Epistemology
• ISSN: 0039-7857
• Language: English