To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Academic & Professional Books  Organismal to Molecular Biology  General Biology

Across the Boundaries Extrapolation in Biology and Social Science

By: Daniel Steel
254 pages, illustrations
Across the Boundaries
Click to have a closer look
  • Across the Boundaries ISBN: 9780195331448 Hardback Feb 2008 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 6 days
    £82.99
    #175052
Price: £82.99
About this book Contents Customer reviews Related titles

About this book

The biological and social sciences often generalize causal conclusions from one context or location to others that may differ in some relevant respects, as is illustrated by inferences from animal models to humans or from a pilot study to a broader population. Inferences like these are known as extrapolations. The question of how and when extrapolation can be legitimate is a fundamental issue for the biological and social sciences that has not received the attention it deserves.

In Across the Boundaries, Steel argues that previous accounts of extrapolation are inadequate and proposes a better approach that is able to answer methodological critiques of extrapolation from animal models to humans. Across the Boundaries develops the thought that knowledge of mechanisms linking cause to effect can serve as a basis for extrapolation. Despite its intuitive appeal, this idea faces several obstacles. Extrapolation is worthwhile only when there are stringent practical or ethical limitations on what can be learned about the target (say, human) population by studying it directly.Meanwhile, the mechanisms approach rests on the idea that extrapolation is justified when mechanisms are the same or similar enough. Yet since mechanisms may differ significantly between model and target, it needs to be explained how the suitability of the model could be established given only very limited information about the target. Moreover, since model and target are rarely alike in all relevant respects, an adequate account of extrapolation must also explain how extrapolation can be legitimate even when some causally relevant differences are present.

Steel explains how his proposal can answer these challenges, illustrates his account with a detailed biological case study, and explores its implications for such traditional philosophy of science topics ceteris paribus laws and reductionism. Finally, he considers whether mechanisms-based extrapolation can work in social science.

Contents

PREFACE; 1. Extrapolation and Heterogeneity; 2. Interventions, Causal Effects, and Causal Relevance; 3. Causal Structure and Mechanisms; 4. The Disruption Principle; 5. Extrapolation, Capacities, and Mechanisms; 6. Ceteris Paribus and Extrapolation; 7. Reduction and Corrective Asymmetry; 8. Extrapolation in Social Science; 9. Social Mechanisms and Process Tracing; 10. Looking Back and Ahead; APPENDIX; REFERENCES

Customer Reviews

By: Daniel Steel
254 pages, illustrations
Current promotions
New and Forthcoming BooksNHBS Moth TrapBritish Wildlife MagazineBuyers Guides