ABSTRACT
To state that comparison is part of science is a truism: clearly, examining more than one observation necessarily involves making comparisons of some sort. Furthermore, explanations, macroscopic or otherwise, may be viewed as ultimately based on induction from specific observations to the more general, comparing these empirical instances along the way. However, applying this technique is far from easy: comparisons involve a variety of conceptual, logical, methodological, and empirical complexities. Nevertheless, this kind of approach permits the researcher to explicate underlying factors inherent in an explicit (or implicit) continuum as typologies (or comparative models) are constructed prior to formulating an explicit theory or explanation of the issue at hand.
