Ross, Lauren N. (2019) Explanation in Contexts of Causal Complexity: Lessons from Psychiatric Genetics. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Over the past decade there have been increasingly common claims that psychiatry is in a “crisis”(Hyman, 2013; Morgan, 2015; Poland and Tekin, 2017). These claims often target the lack of known or identifiable causal etiologies for psychiatric diseases, suggesting that they are “among the most intractable enigmas in medicine” (Sullivan et al., 2012, 537). While the intractable nature of these disorders is often associated with their “causal complexity” (Poland and Tekin, 2017, 5), it is not always clear exactly what is meant by this. How should we understand causal complexity in this domain How does it challenge scientific efforts to understand and explain these diseases? This paper addresses these questions by examining two main types of causal complexity in psychiatry. My analysis clarifies what these types of causal complexity are, how they challenge efforts to understand and explain these disorders, and how scientists are working to overcome these challenges.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Ross, Lauren N. rossl@uci.edu
Keywords:	Philosophy of psychiatry, causation, explanation
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Medicine > Psychiatry
Depositing User:	Lauren N. Ross
Date Deposited:	09 Feb 2019 14:04
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2019 03:55
Item ID:	15728
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Medicine > Psychiatry
Date:	8 February 2019
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15728

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