ABSTRACT

This chapter examines how the statistical evidence, produced by Ancel Keys in the observational seven countries study, and by Dayton in the Los Angeles veterans randomized controlled trial, can be combined with the evidence of mechanism produced by N. Anitschkow. A causal law cannot be taken as established unless it has been confirmed by some interventional evidence. This principle is strongly supported by the action-related theory of causality. The chapter discusses various points connected with the evidential principle of strength through combining. It states this principle in a case where people are considering a causal hypothesis H say which is confirmed by two different types of evidence, α and ß say. Illari seems to have been the first to formulate the principle of strength through combining. Using the example of masking mechanisms, Illari formulates a principle similar to what has here been called the evidential principle of strength through combining.