Correlation by itself without known connecting mechanisms or relationships does not imply causation
This does separate out the “getting run over by a car” case, but it doesn’t handle the handwashing one. Germ theory hadn’t been invented yet and Semelweiss’ proposed mechanism was both medically unlikely and wrong. With sickle cell anemia it kind of handles it, in that you can think of all sorts of ways weirdly shaped blood cells might be a problem, but I think it’s a stretch to say that the first people looking at the blood and saying “that’s weird, it’s probably the problem” understood the “connecting mechanisms or relationships”.
More generally, correlation is some evidence and if it’s not expected someone should probably look more closely to try to understand why we’re seeing it, which generally means some kind of controlled experiment.
Well, to start with correlation is data. This data might be used to generate hypotheses. Once you have some hypotheses you can start talking about evidence and yes, correlation can be promoted to the rank of evidence supporting some hypothesis.
I don’t think any of that is controversial. The only point is that pure correlation without anything else is pretty weak evidence, that’s all. However if you want to use it to generate hypotheses, sure, no problems with it whatsoever.
This does separate out the “getting run over by a car” case, but it doesn’t handle the handwashing one. Germ theory hadn’t been invented yet and Semelweiss’ proposed mechanism was both medically unlikely and wrong. With sickle cell anemia it kind of handles it, in that you can think of all sorts of ways weirdly shaped blood cells might be a problem, but I think it’s a stretch to say that the first people looking at the blood and saying “that’s weird, it’s probably the problem” understood the “connecting mechanisms or relationships”.
More generally, correlation is some evidence and if it’s not expected someone should probably look more closely to try to understand why we’re seeing it, which generally means some kind of controlled experiment.
Well, to start with correlation is data. This data might be used to generate hypotheses. Once you have some hypotheses you can start talking about evidence and yes, correlation can be promoted to the rank of evidence supporting some hypothesis.
I don’t think any of that is controversial. The only point is that pure correlation without anything else is pretty weak evidence, that’s all. However if you want to use it to generate hypotheses, sure, no problems with it whatsoever.