Lost in Causality: How Epidemiology’s Counterfactual Causal Inference Revolution Upholds Class, Race and Gender Inequities

Carles Muntaner () and James R. Dunn
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Carles Muntaner: University of Toronto
James R. Dunn: McMaster University

A chapter in Philosophical and Methodological Debates in Public Health, 2019, pp 47-58 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract We critique empiricism, the dominant epistemology in epidemiology and public health from a scientific realist perspective. Building on our previous work, we also take on the popular counterfactual/potential outcomes epistemology based on its neglect of ontology and shunning causal mechanisms which are reduced to statistical methods (e.g., mediation). We the argue that ontology, epistemology, axiology and ethics constitute a philosophical system in epidemiology, and, in particular in social epidemiology and health equity/social inequalities research that ends up supporting capitalism, patriarchal/gendered and racialize social systems.

Keywords: Scientific realism; Empiricism; Counterfactual; Potential outcomes; Ethics; Epidemiology; Public health; Social determinants of health; Social inequalities in health; Social epidemiology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-28626-2_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-28626-2_4

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