The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a technique by which the tools of Boolean algebra are applied to equifinal causal conditions, is gaining popularity amongst scholars. This paper draws upon a distinction largely overlooked by the QCA literature: the difference between inclusive- and exclusive-...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Routledge
2015
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| _version_ | 1826312005112299520 |
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| author | Hackett, U |
| author_facet | Hackett, U |
| author_sort | Hackett, U |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a technique by which the tools of Boolean algebra are applied to equifinal causal conditions, is gaining popularity amongst scholars. This paper draws upon a distinction largely overlooked by the QCA literature: the difference between inclusive- and exclusive-or (OR and XOR). I argue that XOR should be included amongst the tools of QCA, explain why XOR is more easily applied to crisp- than fuzzy-set QCA, and provide two original techniques for applying XOR to fuzzy sets: mechanical and calibrated. With the calibrated technique, the application of the exclusive-or is related to substantive knowledge of the cases with two threshold values: (1) how large two fuzzy set values need to be in order to violate a prior commitment or overshoot a target outcome, and (2) how similar two values need to be in order to violate the rule: ‘A or B, but not both’. This paper improves the capacity of QCA expressions to mirror natural language closely, formalize conversational implicature, and deal with mutually exclusive clusters of sufficiency conditions. It includes a helpful step-by-step guide for QCA practitioners. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:21:10Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:19ab6479-e7df-483b-9f09-ccb77d3d056c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:21:10Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Routledge |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:19ab6479-e7df-483b-9f09-ccb77d3d056c2024-02-05T09:14:30ZThe Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy setsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:19ab6479-e7df-483b-9f09-ccb77d3d056cEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordRoutledge2015Hackett, UQualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a technique by which the tools of Boolean algebra are applied to equifinal causal conditions, is gaining popularity amongst scholars. This paper draws upon a distinction largely overlooked by the QCA literature: the difference between inclusive- and exclusive-or (OR and XOR). I argue that XOR should be included amongst the tools of QCA, explain why XOR is more easily applied to crisp- than fuzzy-set QCA, and provide two original techniques for applying XOR to fuzzy sets: mechanical and calibrated. With the calibrated technique, the application of the exclusive-or is related to substantive knowledge of the cases with two threshold values: (1) how large two fuzzy set values need to be in order to violate a prior commitment or overshoot a target outcome, and (2) how similar two values need to be in order to violate the rule: ‘A or B, but not both’. This paper improves the capacity of QCA expressions to mirror natural language closely, formalize conversational implicature, and deal with mutually exclusive clusters of sufficiency conditions. It includes a helpful step-by-step guide for QCA practitioners. |
| spellingShingle | Hackett, U The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| title | The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| title_full | The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| title_fullStr | The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| title_short | The Goldilocks principle: applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| title_sort | goldilocks principle applying the exclusive disjunction to fuzzy sets |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hackettu thegoldilocksprincipleapplyingtheexclusivedisjunctiontofuzzysets AT hackettu goldilocksprincipleapplyingtheexclusivedisjunctiontofuzzysets |