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questions for examining units of an effect

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Vik

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I'm compiling a list of generic questions for examining units of attributes, processes, or relationships for the purpose of causal explanation.

questions for considering a single instance of an effect in relation to the concept of the effect:

  • Exactly which aspect of the situation was classified as an instance? What was perceived?
  • What is the chain of concepts between perceptual concretes and interpretation of observation?
  • Does the interpretation survive hierarchical reduction?
  • On what basis did the classification occur? What measurement(s)? Within what range(s)?

questions for considering an instance of an effect in relation to the others:

  • What differs among instances in measure or degree? What is their Conceptual Common Denominator?
  • How does the instance stand quantitatively with respect to other instances?
  • How does the instance qualitatively differ from equipotent instances?

questions for considering an instance in relation to previous knowledge about the effect:

  • In relation to previously identified quantitative "thresholds" of change (e.g. phase transitions) "where" is the data in the representation space (e.g. "where" in the phase diagram) and how does it vary?
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On 12/22/2015 at 10:18 PM, Plasmatic said:

Vik I posted this paper in your other thread but it is relevant here too:

 

I spend a lot of time on the topics you are addressing. Particularly the quantitative-qualitative distinction you are hovering over. Will have some input to come.

I haven't thought much about "quality".

I wonder whether anyone here in the forum has gathered material for producing a better definition  of "quality" than what I've seen elsewhere:

The ordinary dictionary definition of "quality" is a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something. 

Latin scholastics translated Aristotle's "poion" as "quality".

Joe Sachs translates poion as "of-this-kind" and emphasizes that poion should NOT be thought of as synonymous with "quality".

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/26/2015 at 10:56 AM, Vik said:

The ordinary dictionary definition of "quality" is a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something. 

I think of a "quality" as a particular type of attribute.

 

For example, some cars are black and some are silver (et cetera) but it doesn't seem quite right to say that they have 'qualities of black or silver'; they have the quality of color (any color) and each one has the particular trait which is its own color. If the quality was fuel efficiency then each car's particular MpG would be the trait. If the quality was the electrical charge of subatomic particles then the only possible traits would be positive, negative or null.

 

So a "quality" is a commensurate attribute; a group of measurements, where - while the traits in this group may all be different - they're all the same kind of trait (such as colors, masses, textures, tastes, electrical charges, etc); the measurements may all be different, but our measuring process is the same.

 

That's the best definition I've found, so far.

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