Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education

Generalization

The method of generalization joins the common features of several objects into one. For example, the Udi, Ingiloy and Khinaliq people are joined under the notion of Albanian peoples. Analysis and comparison establishes the common features of

Section I

Chapter 1

35

Azerbaijani Multiculturalism

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the objects. The methodology of generalization moves from a particular notion towards a general one. The generalization of a notion, as an exercise in logic, is defined by an expansion in its scope and contraction in its content. This operation leads to a reduction in the specificity of the notion. For example, the notion of ‘The history of social thought in Azerbaijan’, obtained by the generalization of ‘Ideas of tolerance in the history of social thought in Azerbaijan’, is inferior to the latter from the point of view of content and specificity. Nevertheless, the newly obtained notion is a step towards revealing the essence of the object of study. The first step taken to determine the essence of a new notion is its generalization; that is, it is the inclusion of the notion in a notion that is much broader in scope. For example, in order to comprehend the notion of ‘multicultural security’ it has to be included in the broader notion of ‘security’. This occasions specific thought about the notion of ‘multicultural security’.

The logical methods of observation, comparison, measuring and experimentation are empirical methods of research, while induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization are theoretical methods, though not far removed from the former.