When one rejects ideas as a knee jerk, without thought, it
suggests emotional explanations to others. Two weeks ago I suggested you
might be interested in multidimensional coding, which you dismissed out of
hand without knowledge of it. I know this to be true now that I have
looked up Ragin (1987), which you claim to be interested in. I agree with
you that it is very interesting. Ragin's boolean approach is actually
multidimensional coding with the number of sets within each dimension
restricted to two. The relationship between the two is described in my
1980 chapter in the Modgils' *Toward a Theory of Cognitive Development.* I
still think you might find multidimensional coding useful. But I do not
offer it as a substitute for stories. It merely gives easier access to a
type of story that unfolds at time scales that we often miss.
David