All too eager to tap into the magic of content analysis, I am dashing backwards and forwards through the just-acquired book by Roberto Franzosi.[1] I am truly excited when I bump into a section close to the end of the book that bears a most promising title: “Know Thyself: Notes on Reflexive Sociology.”[2] He begins with Thales’ admonishment from the section’s title; continues with Thomas Aquinas, who laments that alchemy will yield nothing, but that looking into himself is the only way forward; goes on to Descartes, who has resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of himself; and then proceeds to Montaigne… As I read on, I expect to come upon some great thinker who has applied the rudiments of content analysis on his own writings, but to no avail. By the time I reach the end of the section I realize that not even Franzosi thought of such a feat as a grand finale to his own effort. Alas, am I destined to be the first?!

Footnotes

1. From Words to Numbers: Narrative, Data, and Social Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

2. Op. cit., pp. 318-324.