About
I am a philosopher of science with a particular interest in philosophy of medicine. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama and Assistant Director of the McCollough Institute for Pre-medical Scholars. I am also an Associate at Durham University's Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine and Public Health and a Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg. I completed my PhD at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and, before that, held teaching positions at the Departments of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria.
My research employs conceptual analysis, empirical findings, case studies, and the application of formal methods to help solve important practical problems in science. I am specifically interested in the notion and impact of bias in scientific research, conceptual and methodological questions about medical inference, interpretability, understandability, and explainability in artificial intelligence, and questions about scientific interpretation.
Research
Publications
2024
2023
2022
2021
2021
2020
p-hacking: Its Costs and When It Is Warranted. Erkenntnis [link]
The Bias Dynamics Model: Correcting for Meta-Biases in Therapeutic Prediction. Philosophy of Science [link]
Interpretability and Unification. Philosophy & Technology (with Tyler D.P. Brunet) [link]
Data-dredging bias. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine (with Bennett Holman and John Ioannidis) [link]
What is Interpretability? Philosophy & Technology (with Tyler D.P. Brunet and Eyal Fisher) [link]
Data-dredging Bias. In Catalogue of Bias (with Bennett Holman and John Ioannidis) [link]
Talks
Conferences
A Processualist Account of Disease
The 29th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Nov 2024, New Orleans, USA
Reconciling New Mechanism and Processualism Workshop, June 2023, Exeter, UK
The Bias Dynamics Model: Correcting for Meta-biases in Therapeutic Prediction
The 28th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Nov 2022, Pittsburgh, USA
University of Cambridge Philosophy of Medicine Research Group, Oct 2022, Cambridge, UK
University of Exeter Philosophy Colloquium Series, Oct 2022, Exeter, UK
Integrating Mechanistic and Statistical Evidence for Therapeutic Prediction
Durham University Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine and Public Health Workshop, Oct 2022, Durham, UK
p-hacking: Its Costs and When It Is Warranted
The 11th Annual Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology Conference, June 2023, Dallas, USA
The 27th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Nov 2021, Baltimore, USA
Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of Alabama, Feb 2021, Tuscaloosa, USA
CamPoS, University of Cambridge, Feb 2021 , Cambridge, UK
Etiological, Symptom-Based, and Pathophysiological Approaches to Disease Classification
McCollough Institute for Pre-medical Scholars Seminar, University of Alabama, Feb 2021, Tuscaloosa, USA
The Canadian Philosophy Association Conference, Jun 2019, Vancouver, Canada
Expected Utility, Inductive Risk, and the Consequences of p-hacking
Bayes by the Sea Conference, Aug 2019, Ancona, Italy
The 16th International Congress on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Aug 2019, Prague, Czechia
The 8th Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable, Jun 2019, Paris, France
The Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science Conference, Jun 2019, Vancouver, Canada
Inductive Risk and Extrapolation in Medicine
The Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science Conference, Jun 2017, Toronto, Canada
The 7th Annual Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology Conference, May 2017, Dallas, USA
A Tracking Theory of Prediction
Spring Colloquium, Sep 2014, Cape Town, South Africa
The Philosophical Society of Southern Africa Conference, Jan 2014, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Teaching
University of Alabama
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Medicine
Medical Knowledge and Its Limits
Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
Interdisciplinary Medical Foundations I & II
University of Cambridge
Philosophy of Medicine
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of the Special Sciences
History and Philosophy of Science
Metaphysics and Epistemology
Logic
University of Pretoria
Philosophy of Medicine
Philosophy of Science
Moral and Political Philosophy
University of Johannesburg
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Mind
Engineering Ethics
Engineering Aesthetics
Business Ethics and Citizenship
Contact
Adrian Erasmus
Department of Philosophy
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
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