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Some implications of the logical calculus for empirical classes for social science methodology

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Abstract

An exposition of a calculus for empirical classes (CEC), one of the few attempts by logicians to deal with the problem of constructs and indicators, is presented. The CEC provides the groundwork for a formal structure for the situation in which individuals have a degree of membership in various classes rather than having either membership or nonmembership—a situation nearly always true in empirical research. The CEC is presented and its relation to various social science concepts is mentioned. An application of the CEC model to latent structure analysis (LSA) suggests alternatives to the local independence assumption including one called the local scale assumption, which has a close relation to a Guttman scale.

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Author notes

  1. William C. Schutz

    Present address: The University of California, Berkeley

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard University, USA

    William C. Schutz

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  1. William C. Schutz
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Additional information

This work was done while the author was an S.S.R.C. Fellow at Columbia University working on a project in social science methodology. Much is owed to Professor Paul Lazarsfeld for frequent discussions and suggestions both prior to and during the writing of this paper. Herbert Menzel also contributed valuable critical comments. Professor Abraham Kaplan also aided by reading the manuscript and offering helpful comments.

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Schutz, W.C. Some implications of the logical calculus for empirical classes for social science methodology. Psychometrika 24, 69–87 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289764

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289764

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