ABSTRACT
The most basic goal of the social-scientific study of social movements (SMOs) is to formulate accurate generalizations about them in answer to questions the researcher has asked. This aim, it should be understood, suffuses the social-scientific study of human social organization in general. For the social science researcher, case propositions are an indispensable first step in analyzing SMOs, but the higher quest is for generic propositions. One key purpose of this quest is, of course, to learn from experience by abstracting from it. To formulate a generic or generalized proposition or concept out of a case or cases is to strengthen ability to recognize such patterns when encounter them in other instances. Formulating generic propositions is a distinctive kind of intellectual endeavor that can be contrasted with other kinds of endeavors in a variety of ways. That is, the idea of generic propositions reflects other distinctions drawn among types of intellectual work.
