Analysis

What do we mean by analysis? Think of a chemist analysing an known substance. She tries to identify it and say what its properties are by reducing it to its simple elements. She breaks it down. She is then in a position to perceive the relationships between the separate elements. In the same way a researcher who is studying a complex topic - like the causes of a war, or the origins of a war, or the origins of a religious system, or the evolutionary effects of isolation on some species - will try to distinguish the different elements so that he can then study each of them separately, and their relationships. Thus he will try to decide:

In the process of conducting his analysis, the researcher asks himself questions about the material he is studying. There are two types or levels of question which he may ask. The first consists of questions which are designed to clarify the facts. The chemist, for example, in trying to identify a substance, poses questions about its physical properties (what is the colour of the substance? its atomic weight? Its reaction to other substances? etc). An historian, in trying to iden­tify the causes of a war, is also interested in facts (what was the order of events in time? what are the sources of evidence for this sequence of events? Etc)

The second type or question is not concerned with clarifying facts but with making judgements - judgements about the worth or value or truth of the subject being studied. For the historian the question is no longer simply: what are the sources of evidence & for a sequence of events but how valid are those sources? are the documents being used first-hand accounts, or second-hand reports? are they supported by other sources? is there suspicion of bias or in­accuracy? Similarly the chemist, in trying to establish certain facts about the substance she is investigating, will ask herself questions about the value of her analysis: are the instruments of measurement the most appropriate and exact? are the experimental procedures being used exhaustive? is there more than one way of explaining the facts established in the analysis?

When they begin in this way to ask questions and make judgements about the value of the material being analysed, the researchers are moving over into the area of critical analysis . Notice that the words ‘critical' and ‘criticism' are not being used here in the purely negative sense in which they are often used in ordinary speech, not just to point out weaknesses. Rather they mean an attempt to judge the good as well as the bad; to distinguish the valid the invalid, strengths from weaknesses. Notice too that the actual questions which are asked vary with the discipline: the question appropriate to Chemistry might be quite inappropriate in History and the other way around.