Il 9 febbraio 2015 si è tenuto, presso l'Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence of the Philosophy of Social Sciences (TNT) dell'Università di Helsinki, il Workshop Epidemiology: an approach with multidisciplinary applicability, a cui ha preso parte, tra gli altri Alex Broadbent, filosofo della scienza presso l'Università di Johannesburg.
Riassunto:
"What do diseases and financial crises have in common?
Epidemiology has traditionally been used to model the spreading of diseases in populations at risk. By applying parameters related to agents’ responses to infection and network of contacts it helps to study how diseases occur, why they spread and how one could prevent epidemic outbreaks. For decades, epidemiology has studied also non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, addictions and accidents. Descriptive epidemiology focuses on providing accurate information on the occurrence (incidence, prevalence and survival) of the condition. Etiological epidemiology seeks to identify the determinants be they infectious agents, environmental or social exposures, or genetic variants. A central goal is to identify determinants amenable to intervention, and hence prevention of disease. There is thus a need to consider both reverse causation and confounding as possible alternative explanations to a causal one. Novel designs are providing new tools to address these issues. But epidemiology also provides an approach that has broad applicability to a number of domains covered by multiple disciplines. For example, it is widely and successfully used to explain the propagation of computer viruses, macroeconomic expectations and rumours in a population over time. As a consequence, epidemiological concepts such as “super-spreader” have found their way also to economic literature that deals with financial stability issues. There is an obvious analogy between the prevention of diseases and the design of economic policies against the threat of financial crises. The purpose of this session is to discuss the applicability of epidemiology across various domains and the possibilities to mutually benefit from common concepts and methods".
Altre notizie su questo evento sono scaricabili da:
http://www.helsinki.fi/tint/materials/AIDinfo/AID09022015.pdf
Riferimenti bibliografici:
Broadbent, Alex. Philosophy of Epidemiology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. - XXII, 203 p. ; 22 cm. (New directions in the philosophy of science).
Il Prof. Broadbent è attivo anche nel suo Blog di Filosofia dell'Epidemiologia:
https://philosepi.wordpress.com/
