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Parsimonious Sociology Theory Construction: From A Computational Framework To Semantic-Based Parsimony Analysis, Mingzhe Du

Theses and Dissertations

In the social sciences, theories are used to explain and predict observed phenomena in the natural world. Theory construction is the research process of building testable scientific theories to explain and predict observed phenomena in the natural world. Conceptual new ideas and meanings of theories are conveyed through carefully chosen definitions and terms.

The principle of parsimony, an important criterion for evaluating the quality of theories (e.g., as exemplified by Occam’s Razor), mandates that we minimize the number of definitions (terms) used in a given theory.

Conventional methods for theory construction and parsimony analysis are based on heuristic approaches. However, …