As regards analysis, I have been much influenced by Bob Goodin’s dictum: ‘Distinctions = arguments’. That formula cannot be quite right: distinction is often the basis for argument rather than the argument itself. For example, philosophers may distinguish different aspects of equality before using this for a normative argument. But Goodin’s essential insight is correct: we often benefit when we see that what we thought of as one thing is actually two or more things, and that our answers depend on which of these things we examine.
Adrian Blau, political scientist, in https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01916599.2023.2276603 [my underlines; endote numbers deleted for readability]
For more on and examples of the methods’ imperative, First differentiate!, please see my guide http://ids.ac.uk/publications/when-complex-is-as-simple-as-it-gets-guide-for-recasting-policy-and-management-in-the-anthropocene/
WHEN COMPLEX IS AS SIMPLE AS IT GETS 