On Tue, 28 Jan 2003 billbartlett at dodo.com.au wrote:
> If your analysis is only applicable to abstract "large groups", but not
> to actual real people, then how can we test its veracity? It is just a
> vague and sweeping generalisation.
>
> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tas
>
This assumes that "large groups" cannot have emergent properties that are distinct from its constituent parts. Understanding how one computer server works does not provide a useful understanding of the Internet (the emergent whole). We need to pay attention to the unit of analysis here. If our goal is to understand "social facts", the test of any hypothesis requires an observation of the social ensemble, not simply the individual elements that make up the ensemble. --Even further: an accurate theory of the ensemble may appear completely wrong when applied to a specific, individual case. That doesn't make the theory any less accurate or useful.
Miles