Logical analysis as a qualitative method I: Themes in old age and chronic illness

Abstract Qualitative methods have been criticized for their lack of explicit procedures and weakness in explanation. The present paper draws attention to a qualitative approach with a clear procedure and wide explanatory scope — logical analysis. Logic has been neglected as a way of organizing informants’accounts because it has been identified with a procedure for organizing theory. In this paper, the attempt is to reverse the emphasis, and to demonstrate a way of working with informants rather than involving in theoretical prescriptions. The approach is illustrated by some themes arising in old age and chronic illness. First, two conceptions of illness which have been distinguished in the work of Claudine Herzlich are analysed as systems of premises and consequences. Next, the procedures involved in logical analysis, and the explanations and practical uses which arise from it, are illustrated in two case studies. These cases are part of a larger body of data collected, amongst other things, for the purpose of eliciting the logic of old people's thinking. The emphasis is on illustrating the method; and general issues which arise from it, including the analysis of people who entertain contradictory systems of thought, are postponed to a second paper.