Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

68 Chapter 2
Note that in all the examples of theory I’ve just given, the predictions and
the post hoc explanations, I didn’t have to quote a single statistic—not even a
percentage score. That’s because theories are qualitative. Ideas about cause
and effect are based on insight; they are derived from either qualitative or
quantitative observations and are initially expressed in words. Testing causal
statements—finding out how much they explain rather than whether they seem
to be plausible explanations—requires quantitative observations. But theory
construction—explanation itself—is the quintessential qualitative act.