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Sci'fic facts do not speak for themselves, but are governed by the perspective of the investigator. Pictorial & data-based illustrations are provided to indicate how conclusions can be altered through the reconceptualization of what the behavioral response is to mean. Extended treatment is given to Herbert McClosky's scale of pol'al conservatism "Consensus and Ideology in American Politics," American Political Science Review, 1964, 58, Jun, 361 -- 382, questioning the contention by Arthur Kalleberg that this scale provides a validation of subjective meaning structures. 18 R's rank-ordered 18 of McClosky's original items from "most" to "least" conservative, & the ranks were factor analyzed. 3 factors resulted, indicating at least 3 diff subjective perspectives (or 3 conceptualizations) of conservatism, & casting doubt on the presumed unidimensionality of the concept. Questions are raised as to the need for operational definitions, which really only represent the investigator's perspective built into a measuring device. The implications are related to ancient & contemporary theoretical positions concerning the perception of reality & its epistemological importance. AA.

AbstractThis paper reconstructs the account of concept formation developed in the 4thCentury A.D. by Themistius in the most ancient extant commentary on Aristotle'sPosterior Analytics. Themistius' account can be contrasted with two widespread modern interpretations of Aristotle. Unlike psychological empiricists, Themistius ascribes an active role in concept formation to our innate capacity of understanding (νοῦς). Unlike intuitionists, he would not be satisfied by saying that νοῦς "intuits" or "spots" concepts. Rather, the question is what makes our νοῦς capable of "finding" and "recognizing" concepts in experience, and this can only be an understanding prior to all experience. Themistius seems to be responding here to Platonist arguments against Aristotle's epistemology: postulating a "potential νοῦς" is not enough, for one can apply Meno's dilemma toitand ask how it can recognize that it has found what it was looking for. But, contrary to the judgment of some modern scholars, Themistius never embraced the theory of recollection either (he rejects it decisively). He argued that both empiricism and Platonist innatism are wrong and developed a middle path marked by a strong interdependence between the perceptive and the rational capacity. This holds for all rational learning, and concept formation is its first stage: to form a concept means tolearnsomething genuinely new, but also torecognizeit as falling, e. g., under one of the ten categories. While being presented as a mere "paraphrasis" of Aristotle's words, Themistius' account is a well-advised and original response to the epistemological debates of his time.

Concepts are central to the enterprise of political science. If we fail to develop clear and precise concepts, our theoretical insights and empirical discoveries will fail to be clear and precise, too. This paper reviews major pitfalls for conceptual analysis as well as the fundamental challenges to concept formation and conceptual innovation in the study of politics. ; La formación de conceptos es una labor fundamental en las ciencias sociales. Si no logramos desarrollar conceptos claros y precisos, nuestras proposiciones teóricas y nuestros hallazgos empíricos no podrán ser claros y precisos tampoco. Después de una breve introducción sobre la naturaleza (normativa) de conceptos, el presente documento revisa de manera crítica y sintetizada riesgos y retos fundamentales para la formación e innovación de conceptos en los estudios políticos.

"Conflicting imperatives" lie at the heart of many important social science concepts. This label was introduced by Reinhard Bendix to characterize concepts that entail a dynamic tension among contradictory goals, priorities, or motivations. Notwithstanding the attention scholars give to conflicting imperatives, the importance to social science research of concepts based on conflicting imperatives has not adequately been recognized and the issues of concept formation that arise with these concepts have not been explored. This article seeks to address these shortcomings and to give the consideration of conflicting imperatives a more central place in conceptual and methodological discussions.

Professionals and educators have raised serious questions regarding very young American Indian children's perceptions of their "Indianness." Using the children's reactions to two dolls, four aspects of self-concept formation were examined: visual preference, interaction preference, objective accuracy, and subjective accuracy.

The social and behavioral sciences need distinctive concepts to escape entrapment in cultural assumptions. Currently there are several sources for concepts, but vernacular words are most frequently used. These words are usually ambiguous and may reaffirm the status quo. This essay proposes that a new approach is implied in Goffman's work. Most of the new terms he invented went undefined. However, he can be seen as struggling in much of his writing to develop two basic components of the "looking-glass self," awareness structures and embarrassment. His method seems to have involved using many vernacular cognates and close examination of detailed examples of each concept. The implication is that it might be possible to ground concepts by 1. Listing and examining links to vernacular and technical cognates, and 2. Closely exploring many concrete examples. A study of one type of awareness structure, collective denial (Zerubavel 2006), can also be used to illustrate the potential of this method.

ESSAY EXAMINES THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL INTERNATIONAL REGIMES ARE SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, EVEN THOUGH THERE IS GREAT VARIATION AMONG THEM. THIS SUGGESTS THAT REGIMES ARE DEPENDENT UPON THE MAINTENANCE OF CONVERGENT EXPECTATIONS AMONG ACTORS; FORMALIZATION IS NOT A NECESSARY CONDITION FOR THE EFFECTIVE OPERATION OF REGIMES; AND REGIMES ARE ALWAYS CREATED RATHER THAN DISCOVERED.