VII: Some General Propositions: An Interpretative Summary

The six papers preceding either report single disasters or analyze certain patterns of behavior that are inferred from numerous instances of disaster. Like the rest of the scientific literature on disaster behavior, the present publication is based upon case studies. In themselves, however, individual cases have no importance in science. They acquire scientific importance only insofar as they show the way to new and broader inquiry, or provide further verification of existing hypotheses. This is not to say that case studies are unimportant, or less important than other procedures and types of data. On the contrary, any case may be a "crucial" case, especially in areas like disaster research where so little is known about the variables themselves, let alone their variations as determined by comparative or experimental methods.