ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book. The scientific process may be described as involving five principal information components whose transformations into one another are controlled by six principal sets of methods, in the general manner. Individual observations are highly specific and essentially unique items of information whose synthesis into the more general form denoted by empirical generalizations is accomplished by measurement, sample summarization, and parameter estimation. Empirical generalizations, in turn, are items of information that can be synthesized into a theory via concept formation, proposition formation, and proposition arrangement. The marginality of information components is meant to signify their ability to be transformed into each other, under the indicated controls, and thus to play at least dual roles in the scientific process. The book emphasizes the paramount importance of the series of methodological controls and information components.
