Abstract
AbstractThe Russo–Williamson thesis maintains that establishing a causal claim in medicine normally requires establishing both a correlation and a mechanism. In this paper, I present a dilemma for defenders of this thesis: a strong version of the thesis requires denying a plausible counterexample, but as the thesis is weakened, its defenders must give up their favoured account of the explanatory role of causal claims in medicine. I appeal to some recent work in epistemology on infallibilism to propose a way out of this dilemma, where this way out requires neither denying the plausible counterexample nor giving up the favoured account. I think this shows that even apparently abstract debates in epistemology can provide resources that may help to resolve debates in the philosophy of science and medicine.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC