ABSTRACT
This chapter both builds upon and extends the concepts developed in Chapter 1 by conceptually “stepping up” to a level that entails conceiving of a collection of individual cases (e.g., an aggregate of cases) as an object of reflection that can be operated upon. Whereas the concept of attribute is defined in Chapter 1 as a characteristic of individual cases of objects of the same class, Chapter 2 develops the idea of a collection of cases as an object in its own right which can be thought of as also possessing certain attributes. This advancement in the level of object (a collection of cases) and its attributes entails a corresponding advancement in thinking about the relationship between individual cases and collection thereof, in thinking about the relationship between attributes identified for individual cases and those identified for collections thereof, and in thinking about quantifying certain attributes of collections of cases.
