David Steel
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 210781 |
|---|---|
| NOME | David Steel |
| PRENOMES | David |
| SOBRENOME | Steel |
| ASSINATURA | STEEL D |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4448-3748 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 81 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 263 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 81 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1970 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
Speed and Justice in a Renewable Energy Transition
A just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy has been associated with a variety of duties, including climate change mitigation and promoting procedural, distributive, and recognitional justice. Several authors have discussed transitional justice tensions between the need for rapid greenhouse gas emissions reductions and other aspects of a just transition, such as fair inclusion of stakeholders. We make the case that such trade-offs are…
Unilateral Action on Climate Change and the Moral Obligation to Take Leadership
We claim that a moral obligation to take climate leadership by means of unilateral mitigation depends on the existence of a plausible follow‐the‐leader mechanism whereby unilateral mitigation by some increases the probability of sufficient mitigation by others to avert catastrophic climate impacts. By understanding these mechanisms, we can better articulate the obligation for climate leadership across various sectors, from government to individua…
How do high-level African directors of policy and planning operationalize health equity? Findings from a regional survey
This study investigates the operationalization of health equity and associated challenges faced by directors of policy and planning and those in related positions in the African Region. The results of this study demonstrate that health equity is generally a priority for policymakers in practice and is operationalized in four ways: (i) targeting priority groups, (ii) focusing on the entire population; (iii) through procedural justice; and (iv) ope…
Hypersensitivity and the lexical precautionary principle
A Dynamic Collapse Concept for Climate Change
Despite growing interest in risks of societal collapse due to anthropogenic climate change, there exists no consensus about how collapse should be understood. In this article, we critically examine existing definitions and argue that none adequately address the challenges for conceptualizing collapse that climate change presents. We therefore propose an alternative conception, which regards collapse as a reduction of collective capacity resulting…
A forward-looking approach to climate change and the risk of societal collapse
This article proposes a forward-looking approach to studying societal collapse risks related to climate change. Such an approach should indicate how to study emerging collapse risks and suggest strategies for adapting to them. Our approach is based on three postulates that facilitate a forward-looking approach: (1) collapse, if it occurred, would be a lengthy process rather than an abrupt event; (2) significant collapse risks already exist in som…
The Effects of Omitting Components in a Multilevel Model With Social Network Effects
Multilevel models are often used to account for the hierarchical structure of social data and the inherent dependencies to produce estimates of regression coefficients, variance components associated with each level, and accurate standard errors. Social network analysis is another important approach to analysing complex data that incoproate the social relationships between a number of individuals. Extended linear regression models, such as networ…
Collapse, social tipping dynamics, and framing climate change
In this article, we claim that recent developments in climate science and renewable energy should prompt a reframing of debates surrounding climate change mitigation. Taken together, we argue that these developments suggest (1) global climate collapse in this century is a non-negligible risk, (2) mitigation offers substantial benefits to current generations, and (3) mitigation by some can generate social tipping dynamics that could ultimately mak…
Diverse Discussion in Public Deliberation on Cancer Drug Funding
Structured deliberations among members of the public are increasingly viewed as useful inputs to health policy decisions that also rely on scientific evidence and expertise. Such deliberations typically aim for discussions that explore a diversity of ideas and perspectives. However, the concept of a diverse discussion has not been thoroughly examined and methods for measuring the extent to which a discussion actually was diverse are lacking. In t…
Maybe We Should Try the Precautionary Principle
How do policy‐makers call shots on major decisions—such as putting a country into lockdown to mitigate the risk of Covid‐19—when they don't have all the scientific facts about how the virus spreads? And to which moral values do they appeal when weighing the health and economic risks involved? David B. Resnik addresses such questions in his book Precautionary Reasoning in Environmental and Public Health Policy (Springer, 2021), which provides a fr…
Pro-Diversity Beliefs and the Diverse Person’s Burden
Pro-diversity beliefs hold that greater diversity leads to better results in academia, business, politics and a variety of other contexts. This paper explores the possibility that pro-diversity beliefs can generate unfair expectations that marginalized people produce distinctive bonuses, a phenomenon we refer to as the “diverse person’s burden”. We suggest that a normic conception of diversity, according to which non-diversity entails social priv…
Diversity, Trust, and Conformity
Previous simulation models have found positive effects of cognitive diversity on group performance, but have not explored effects of diversity in demographics (e.g., gender, ethnicity). In this paper, we present an agent-based model that captures two empirically supported hypotheses about how demographic diversity can improve group performance. The results of our simulations suggest that, even when social identities are not associated with distin…
Diverse Discussion in Public Deliberation on Cancer Drug Funding
Structured deliberations among members of the public are increasingly viewed as useful inputs to health policy decisions that also rely on scientific evidence and expertise. Such deliberations typically aim for discussions that explore a diversity of ideas and perspectives. However, the concept of a diverse discussion has not been thoroughly examined and methods for measuring the extent to which a discussion actually was diverse are lacking. In t…
Information elaboration and epistemic effects of diversity
We suggest that philosophical accounts of epistemic effects of diversity have given insufficient attention to the relationship between demographic diversity and information elaboration (IE), the process whereby knowledge dispersed in a group is elicited and examined. We propose an analysis of IE that clarifies hypotheses proposed in the empirical literature and their relationship to philosophical accounts of diversity effects. Philosophical accou…
Genocide and the 'clean-fighting Turk' in First World War Britain and Ireland
British and Irish attitudes towards their Turkish enemy during the First World War have rarely been explored. Unlike the German 'Hun', Turks were praised as 'clean fighters', despite overwhelming evidence of the Armenian Genocide. Using largely unexamined press material, this article attributes the 'clean-fighting Turk's' longevity to the sanctity of soldier testimony, where it originated, and the preoccupation with Germany. Both Turkish chivalry…
Rethinking Representation and Diversity in Deliberative Minipublics
Deliberative minipublics often seek to recruit participants who are representative and diverse. This raises theoretical and practical challenges, because representativeness and diversity can be interpreted in multiple ways and can conflict with one another. We address this issue by proposing a purposive design approach, according to which the appropriate conceptualisations of representativeness and diversity, and thereby recruitment strategies, d…
A Closer Look at the Business Case for Diversity
This article examines the business case for diversity (BCD), according to which diversity should be promoted because diverse groups outperform nondiverse groups. Philosophers who defend BCD usually propose that diversity’s positive effects are contingent on equitable background conditions that promote respectful and open discourse, suggesting that efforts to promote equity and to reap the benefits of diversity go hand-in-hand. Yet we explain how …
How to use replicate weights in health survey analysis using the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey as an example
Objective: To conduct nutrition-related analyses on large-scale health surveys, two aspects of the survey must be incorporated into the analysis: the sampling weights and the sample design; a practice which is not always observed. The present paper compares three analyses: (1) unweighted; (2) weighted but not accounting for the complex sample design; and (3) weighted and accounting for the complex design using replicate weights. Design: Descripti…
Adjusting Inferential Thresholds to Reflect Nonepistemic Values
Many philosophers have challenged the ideal of value-free science on the grounds that social or moral values are relevant to inferential thresholds. But given this view, how precisely and to what extent should scientists adjust their inferential thresholds in light of nonepistemic values? We suggest that signal detection theory provides a useful framework for addressing this question. Moreover, this approach opens up further avenues for philosoph…
A combined theoretical and empirical approach to evidence quality evaluation
Precaution and Fairness
Wishful Thinking and Values in Science
This article examines the concept of wishful thinking in philosophical literature on science and values. It suggests that this term tends to be used in an overly broad manner that fails to distinguish between separate types of bias, mechanisms that generate biases, and general theories that might explain those mechanisms. I explain how confirmation bias is distinct from wishful thinking and why it is more useful for examining the relationship bet…
Accepting an Epistemically Inferior Alternative? A Comment on Elliott and McKaughan
Kevin Elliott and Dan McKaughan argue that, in some cases, nonepistemic values provide legitimate reasons for scientists to accept an epistemically inferior option, a claim that they support with two case studies. This essay argues that Elliott and McKaughan have not shown that their case studies are indeed ones in which an epistemically inferior option was accepted. Specifically, their interpretation of these cases depends on problematic premise…
AIC and the challenge of complexity
Steel's Naval Remembrancer
Epistemic Values and the Argument from Inductive Risk
Critics of the ideal of value-free science often assume that they must reject the distinction between epistemic and nonepistemic values. I argue that this assumption is mistaken and that the distinction can be used to clarify and defend the argument from inductive risk, which challenges the value-free ideal. I develop the idea that the characteristic feature of epistemic values is that they promote, either intrinsically or extrinsically, the atta…
Social Mechanisms and Causal Inference
Several authors have claimed that mechanisms play a vital role in distinguishing between causation and mere correlation in the social sciences. Such claims are sometimes interpreted to mean that without mechanisms, causal inference in social science is impossible. The author agrees with critics of this proposition but explains how the account of how mechanisms aid causal inference can be interpreted in a way that does not depend on it. Neverthele…
Using Census Data to Investigate the Causes of the Ecological Fallacy
The authors show how data from the 2% Sample of Anonymised Records (SAR) can be combined with data from the Small Area Statistics (SAS) database to investigate the causes of the ecological fallacy in an Enumeration District (ED) level analysis. A range of census variables are examined in three 'SAR districts' (local authority districts with populations of 120 000 or more, or combinations of contiguous districts with smaller populations) in Englan…
Ignoring a Level in a Multilevel Model
Because of the inherent multilevel nature of census data, it is often appropriate to use multilevel models to investigate relationships between census variables. For a local population, the data available from the census allow a three-level nested model to be assumed, with an individual level (level 1), an enumeration district (ED) level (level 2), and a ward level (level 3). The consequences of ignoring one of the three levels in this model are …
Voter Turnout in British South Asian Communities at the 2001 General Election
The turnout of 59.4 per cent at the 2001 general election was the lowest since 1918. It has been widely assumed that ethnic or religious minority electors are less likely to vote in general elections than white electors. Furthermore, electoral participation is regarded as both an indicator of the integration of minority communities and the quality of the democratic system. However, existing research that attempts to provide ethnic or religious sp…
Privatising Public Enterprise
No abstract available
Hybrid Healthcare Governance for Improvement? Combining Top‐down and Bottom‐up Approaches to Public Sector Regulation
Improving healthcare governance is an enduring challenge for policy‐makers. We consider two national healthcare regulators adopting novel ‘hybrid’ regulatory control strategies in pursuit of improvement. Hybrids combine elements usually found separately. Scotland's and Ireland's regulators combine: (1) top‐down formal regulatory mechanisms deterring breaches of protocol and enacting penalties where they occur (e.g. standard‐setting, monitoring, a…
Diversity, Trust, and Conformity
Previous simulation models have found positive effects of cognitive diversity on group performance, but have not explored effects of diversity in demographics (e.g., gender, ethnicity). In this paper, we present an agent-based model that captures two empirically supported hypotheses about how demographic diversity can improve group performance. The results of our simulations suggest that, even when social identities are not associated with distin…
Indeterminism and the Causal Markov Condition
The causal Markov condition (CMC) plays an important role in much recent work on the problem of causal inference from statistical data. It is commonly thought that the CMC is a more problematic assumption for genuinely indeterministic systems than for deterministic ones. In this essay, I critically examine this proposition. I show how the usual motivation for the CMC—that it is true of any acyclic, deterministic causal system in which the exogeno…
Macmillan Student Encyclopedia of Sociology
The Macmillan Student Encyclopedia of Sociology is a major comprehensive encyclopedia aimed at all students of social science. The book explains all the important sociological terms, theories, concept
Information elaboration and epistemic effects of diversity
We suggest that philosophical accounts of epistemic effects of diversity have given insufficient attention to the relationship between demographic diversity and information elaboration (IE), the process whereby knowledge dispersed in a group is elicited and examined. We propose an analysis of IE that clarifies hypotheses proposed in the empirical literature and their relationship to philosophical accounts of diversity effects. Philosophical accou…
Acceptance, Values, and Inductive Risk
The argument from inductive risk attempts to show that practical and ethical costs of errors should influence standards of evidence for accepting scientific claims. A common objection charges that this argument presupposes a behavioral theory of acceptance that is inappropriate for science. I respond by showing that the argument from inductive risk is supported by a nonbehavioral theory of acceptance developed by Cohen, which defines acceptance i…
Rules for Random Aggregation
In this paper we derive the effect of aggregation on common statistics when the geographic areas used in the analysis are equivalent to randomly formed groups of individuals. Simple rules of aggregation are provided for use when analysis of such groups is performed. The expectations of common statistics such as means, variances, regression and correlation coefficients, are not affected by aggregation. However, the variation of these statistics is…
Public Administration
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Get access David R. Steel David R. Steel Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, Winter 1982, Pages 105–107, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a054288 Published: 01 January 1982
A New Approach to Argument by Analogy
This essay sketches an account of extrapolation in terms of analogical reasoning that generalizes the notion of comparative process tracing. The account offered here relies on something known as chain graphs, which are used to explicate the role of “fingerprints,” or distinctive markers, as a strategy for avoiding an underdetermination problem having to do with spurious analogies. Moreover, I show how the extrapolator's circle, one of the central…
Methodological Individualism, Explanation, and Invariance
This article examines methodological individualism in terms of the theory that invariance under intervention is the signal feature of generalizations that serve as a basis for causal explanation. This theory supports the holist contention that macro-level generalizations can explain, but it also suggests a defense of methodological individualism on the grounds that greater range of invariance under intervention entails deeper explanation. Althoug…
Bayesian Statistics in Radiocarbon Calibration
Critics of Bayesianism often assert that scientists are not Bayesians. The widespread use of Bayesian statistics in the field of radiocarbon calibration is discussed in relation to this charge. This case study illustrates the willingness of scientists to use Bayesian statistics when the approach offers some advantage, while continuing to use orthodox methods in other contexts. The case of radiocarbon calibration, therefore, suggests a picture of …
Bayesian Confirmation Theory and The Likelihood Principle
No Entry. The Background and Implications of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968
Making Time Stand Still
In a recent article, Elliot Sober responds to challenges to a counter‐example that he posed some years earlier to the Principle of the Common Cause (PCC). I agree that Sober has indeed produced a genuine counter‐example to the PCC, but argue against the methodological moral that Sober wishes to draw from it. Contrary to Sober, I argue that the possibility of exceptions to the PCC does not undermine its status as a central assumption for methods t…
The Privatisation of Uk Public Enterprises
No abstract available
A forward-looking approach to climate change and the risk of societal collapse
This article proposes a forward-looking approach to studying societal collapse risks related to climate change. Such an approach should indicate how to study emerging collapse risks and suggest strategies for adapting to them. Our approach is based on three postulates that facilitate a forward-looking approach: (1) collapse, if it occurred, would be a lengthy process rather than an abrupt event; (2) significant collapse risks already exist in som…
A Closer Look at the Business Case for Diversity
This article examines the business case for diversity (BCD), according to which diversity should be promoted because diverse groups outperform nondiverse groups. Philosophers who defend BCD usually propose that diversity’s positive effects are contingent on equitable background conditions that promote respectful and open discourse, suggesting that efforts to promote equity and to reap the benefits of diversity go hand-in-hand. Yet we explain how …
A Combined and Uneven Development Approach to the European Neolithic
■ The split in Marxism between stagism and combined and uneven development is reviewed through examination of the writings of Karl Kautsky and Leon Trotsky. Based on the premise that strict stagism is a flawed Marxism, the theory of the Neolithic of the Marxist archaeologist V.G. Childe is scrutinized and redeveloped. It is argued that the resulting theory provides a better starting point for analyzing the Neolithic period than do currently popul…
Mechanisms and Functional Hypotheses in Social Science
Critics of functional explanations in social science maintain that such explanations are illegitimate unless a mechanism is specified. Others argue that mechanisms are not necessary for causal inference and that functional explanations are a type of causal claim that raise no special difficulties for testing. I show that there is indeed a special problem that confronts testing functional explanations resulting from their connection to second-orde…
No Entry. The Background and Implications of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968
No Entry. The Background and Implications of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968
Public Enterprise
PUBLIC ENTERPRISE Get access David R. Steel David R. Steel Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 27, Issue 1974mar, March 1974, Pages 296–298, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a051701 Published: 01 March 1974
Administrative Developments in 1973 and 1974
The Years of Nationalisation
THE YEARS OF NATIONALISATION Get access David Steel David Steel Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume XXIX, Issue 2, SPRING 1976, Pages 238–240, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a054149 Published: 01 March 1976
The Use of Memoirs
Journal Article THE USE OF MEMOIRS Get access David Steel David Steel Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume XXIX, Issue 4, AUTUMN 1976, Pages 459–463, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a054178 Published: 01 October 1976
Administrative Developments in 1975 and 1976
Administrative Developments in 1977 and 1978
Administrative Developments in 1979
The Privatisation of Uk Public Enterprises
No abstract available
Privatising Public Enterprise
No abstract available
Public Administration
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Get access David R. Steel David R. Steel Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, Winter 1982, Pages 105–107, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a054288 Published: 01 January 1982
Government and Industry in Britain
For at least fifteen years, Britain's industrial problems have been close to the centre of the political stage. A serious and debilitating illness first became chronic and is now, in the eyes of some observers, terminal. The symptoms of the most prominent patients, such as British Leyland, Rolls-Royce and British Steel, are matters of widespread public diagnosis and prescription. Opinions vary widely as to the role of government both in contribut…
Macmillan Student Encyclopedia of Sociology
The Macmillan Student Encyclopedia of Sociology is a major comprehensive encyclopedia aimed at all students of social science. The book explains all the important sociological terms, theories, concept
United Kingdom
The Integration of Public Enterprise and Exchequer Finances Unravelling the Damaging Myths
No abstract available
Surrealism, Literature of Advertising and the Advertising of Literature in France 1910–1930
SURREALISM, LITERATURE OF ADVERTISING AND THE ADVERTISING OF LITERATURE IN FRANCE 1910–1930 Get access DAVID STEEL DAVID STEEL LANCASTER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French Studies, Volume XLI, Issue 3, July 1987, Pages 283–297, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/XLI.3.283 Published: 01 July 1987
Essay Review
Bayesianism and the Value of Diverse Evidence
In a recent essay (1995), Andrew Wayne charges that Bayesian attempts to account for the rule that, ceteris paribus , diverse evidence confirms better than narrow evidence are inadequate. I reply to these criticisms and argue that, on the contrary, one of the Bayesian approaches considered by Wayne does an excellent job of explaining why, and under what circumstances, diverse evidence is valuable
Obituary
Rules for Random Aggregation
In this paper we derive the effect of aggregation on common statistics when the geographic areas used in the analysis are equivalent to randomly formed groups of individuals. Simple rules of aggregation are provided for use when analysis of such groups is performed. The expectations of common statistics such as means, variances, regression and correlation coefficients, are not affected by aggregation. However, the variation of these statistics is…
A Reply to Jones
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Fiction, relativity theory, quantum chaology and Big Bang
Warfare and Western Manufactures
I use an explanation of Yanomami warfare given by the anthropologist Brian Ferguson as a case study to compare the merits of the causal and unification approaches to explanation. I argue that Ferguson's insistence on explaining actual occurrences and patterns of Yanomami warfare together with his claim that all of his generalizations are statistical raises difficulties for the unification approach, because of its commitment to “deductive chauvini…
Using Census Data to Investigate the Causes of the Ecological Fallacy
The authors show how data from the 2% Sample of Anonymised Records (SAR) can be combined with data from the Small Area Statistics (SAS) database to investigate the causes of the ecological fallacy in an Enumeration District (ED) level analysis. A range of census variables are examined in three 'SAR districts' (local authority districts with populations of 120 000 or more, or combinations of contiguous districts with smaller populations) in Englan…
Political science (34 obras) · Philosophy (33 obras) · Epistemology (29 obras) · Law (28 obras) · Sociology (28 obras) · Computer Science (26 obras) · Economics (25 obras) · Mathematics (20 obras) · Law (17 obras) · Philosophy and History of Science (17 obras)