Conceptual meaning, not measurement convention, should drive quantification

Evidence

In QCA, semantic transformations are called calibrations. For the purposes of this chapter these can be taken as synonyms. I prefer the term “semantic transformations” because it emphasizes that it is the semantic content of the concept that is driving the mathematical transformation. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 756

Categorization

• DEFINE: Calibration in QCA and ‘semantic transformation’ are treated as synonyms; the preferred term foregrounds the concept’s meaning as the source of the math.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The math is downstream of the meaning’ — how naming conventions in quantitative methods smuggle in assumptions about what is being measured.