Evidence-based policy: what’s to be done about relevance?: For the 2008 Oberlin Philosophy Colloquium [Book Review]

Philosophical Studies 143 (1):127 - 136 (2009)
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Abstract

How can philosophy of science be of more practical use? One thing we can do is provide practicable advice about how to determine when one empirical claim is relevant to the truth of another; i.e., about evidential relevance. This matters especially for evidence-based policy, where advice is thin—and misleading—about how to tell what counts as evidence for policy effectiveness. This paper argues that good efficacy results (as in randomized controlled trials), which are all the rage now, are only a very small part of the story. To tell what facts are relevant for judging policy effectiveness, we need to construct causal scenarios about will happen when the policy is implemented.

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Author's Profile

Nancy Cartwright
London School of Economics

References found in this work

Nature's capacities and their measurement.Nancy Cartwright - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The nature of explanation.Peter Achinstein - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Tracking truth: knowledge, evidence, and science.Sherrilyn Roush - 2005 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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