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International Journal of Epidemiology 2001;30:704-706
© International Epidemiological Association 2001

Point-Counterpoint

Causation in Epidemiology: a Socratic dialogue: Plato

Edited by Lucien R. Karhausen

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Socrates Epimenides

So My dear Epidemides what were you doing here?

Ep My name is Epimenides.

So Sorry, Epimenides, my memory is failing!

Ep In fact, Socrates you are just the right person to hear the problem that occupied us, since, in a roundabout way, it was about causality.

So Well, surely, my dear fellow. By the way, do you remember what my friend and colleague Bertrand Russell said about it?

Ep No I don't!

So Well, he pointed out that the law of causality ... like much that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic from a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.1

Ep this is a very surprising statement! Didn't Shakespeare write that There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things? As a matter of fact, we epidemiologists could not dispense with some notion of causality.

. . . [Full Text of this Article]


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