Evidential Pluralism

Evidential Pluralism is a theory of causal enquiry. It maintains that:

Establishing causation normally requires establishing that the putative cause and effect are both appropriately correlated and connected by an appropriate mechanism (‘object pluralism’);
So, evaluating causation requires scrutinising both association studies and mechanistic studies, where available (‘study pluralism’).

For a quick introduction to Evidential Pluralism, see this handout, or this podcast.

General discussion of Evidential Pluralism

Focus on Evidential Pluralism, The Reasoner 15(6), 2021.

Evidential Pluralism applied to the social sciences

For overviews, see

Joe Jones, Alexandra Trofimov, Michael Wilde & Jon Williamson: Integrating diverse evidence using Evidential Pluralism: introductory guide,

Yafeng Shan and Jon Williamson: Applying Evidential Pluralism to the social sciences, European Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11(4):96, 2021. . doi: 10.1007/s13194-021-00415-z

Yafeng Shan and Jon Williamson: Evidential Pluralism in the Social Sciences, Routledge 2023. ISBN 9780367697228

Yafeng Shan & Jon Williamson: Responses to criticisms, Asian Journal of Philosophy 4(2):80, 2025. Doi 110.1007/s44204-025-00302-x

Evidential Pluralism applied to medicine (EBM+)

For overviews of the EBM+ programme, see

Michael Wilde: The EBM+ Movement, The International Journal of Biostatistics 19(2): 283-293, 2023. doi: 10.1515/ijb-2022-0126

Veli-Pekka Parkkinen, Christian Wallmann, Michael Wilde, Brendan Clarke, Phyllis Illari, Michael P. Kelly, Charles Norell, Federica Russo, Beth Shaw and Jon Williamson: Evaluating evidence of mechanisms in medicine: Principles and procedures, Springer, 2018.

For some motivation behind EBM+, see

Jon Williamson: Establishing causal claims in medicine, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 32(1): 33-61, 2019. doi: 10.1080/02698595.2019.1630927