---
title: Elena Rocca
type: entity
tags: [philosopher, causation, philosophy-of-pharmacology, philosophy-of-science]
affiliation: "NMBU — Norwegian University of Life Sciences"
sources: ["[[sources/2023-anjum-rocca-phi403-causation-in-science]]"]
created: 2026-04-20
updated: 2026-04-20
---

# Elena Rocca

Philosopher of science at [[entities/nmbu|NMBU]] with a focus on philosophy of pharmacology, evidence and causation in the life sciences. Frequent co-author with [[entities/rani-lill-anjum]].

## Positions defended in this wiki
- Co-author of Andersen, Anjum & Rocca 2019, *"Philosophical bias is the one bias that science cannot avoid"* (eLife) — the paper that underpins the course's account of [[concepts/philosophical-bias]].
- Joint teacher of **PHI403 — Causation in Science** at NMBU, covering [[concepts/regularity-theory-of-causation]], [[concepts/interventionist-theory-of-causation]], [[concepts/dispositionalism]], [[concepts/mechanisms-in-science]], [[concepts/probabilistic-causation]], and [[concepts/rct-limitations|critiques of the RCT evidence hierarchy]].
- Works on contextual / individual-level evidence in medicine, and the limits of population-level statistics (the **ecological fallacy** in RCTs).

## Contributions in this wiki
- [[sources/2023-anjum-rocca-phi403-causation-in-science]] — PHI403 course meta-source (20 lectures).

## Related
[[entities/rani-lill-anjum]] · [[entities/nmbu]] · [[concepts/causation]] · [[concepts/rct-limitations]]