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This paper develops a synthesis of three basic societal dimensions. These three qualify as basic dimensions by virtue of being collectively inclusive, mutually exclusive to a higher degree than any alternative dimensions we have explored, and universally applicable, i.e., to all social situations. We take the six transact dimensions to be such a set [11]. Of these six we here develop a synthesis of three (acts, people, and time) which we take to be most basic, not in the sense of relative importance to human life and welfare, but in the sense of being completely mutually exclusive, of being explicitly as well as implicitly necessary in the modelling of a very large proportion of social situations, and of being not at all elusive when observed as here in all-or-none units for the acts, “noses counted” for the people, and discrete units of time. For these reasons we consider this set of dimensions especially suitable for first attempts at synthesized rational and predictive models (as distinct from purely analytical, empirical and descriptive models). It is anticipated, however, that as initial efforts increase our scientific skill, essentially the same modelbuilding techniques will be applicable when the “trickiest” or most compounded of the transact dimensions, namely values and circumstances, are also dealt with. Other systems of synthesized, predictive models which we are exploring are described briefly in a later note.
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Dodd, S.C. How momental laws can be developed in sociology by deducing testable and predictive “Actance” Models from Transacts. Synthese 14, 277–299 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00869310
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00869310