ABSTRACT
The root source of all significant theorizing is the sensitive insights of the observer himself. The corollary is that the researcher can get—and cultivate—crucial insights not only during his research but from his own personal experiences prior to or outside it. A related corollary is that such insights need not come from one's own experience but can be taken from others. In this case the burden is on the sociologist to convert these borrowed experiences into his insights. A third corollary pertains to how fruitful insights can be gotten from existing theory. Any contest between insights and existing theory becomes a comparative analysis that delimits the boundaries of the existing theory while generating a more general one. A related corollary pertains specifically to existing theory. Not only must this theory be subjected to the procedures suggested above, but the theorist should also develop comparatively the implications of his personal insights regarding it.
