American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 155, No. 4 : 385
Copyright © 2002 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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From the Editor
Although Carol Buck's 1975 paper, "Popper's Philosophy for Epidemiologists" (1
), was not the first consideration of causal inference in epidemiology, it, nevertheless, led to a vigorous reconsideration of the issues involved that has continued unabated over the past quarter century and more. Almost every meeting of epidemiologists now includes programmatic consideration of "causal inference," and many journal pages are devoted to the subject. However, there is a book that I have found useful in my own teaching that I have never heard or seen referenced in these considerations. It is Claude Bernard's An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, translated into English (2). Space precludes a comprehensive review, so here are a few salient quotations that may whet your interest in this reference.
- "The true scientist is one whose work includes both experimental theory and experimental practice. (1) He notes a fact: (2) a propos of this fact, an idea is born in his mind; (3) in the light of this idea, he reasons, devises an experiment, imagines and brings to pass its material conditions; (4) from this experiment, new phenomena result which must be observed, and so on and so on. The mind of a scientist is always placed ... between two observations: one which serves as starting point for reasoning, and the other which serves as conclusion" (2, p. 24). —Pure induction!
- "... we must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them; which means, ..., that one must accept the results of experiments as they come, with all their unexpectedness and irregularity" (2, p. 38). —In Popperian terms, refutation!
- "Induction has been defined as the process of moving from the particular to the general, while deduction is the reverse process.... I shall content myself with saying that it seems to me very difficult, in practice, to justify this distinction. If the experimenter's mind usually proceeds from particular observations and going back to ... general propositions, it also necessarily proceeds from the same general propositions and reaches particular facts which it deduces logically from these principles" (2, p. 44). —Balancing induction and deduction!
There is a lot of sense in Bernard's little scientific memoir!
References
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Buck C. Popper's philosophy for epidemiologists. Int J Epidemiol 1975;4:159–68.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Bernard C. An introduction to the study of experimental medicine. Greene HC, translator. New York, NY: Henry Schuman, Inc, 1949.
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