title: The fallacy of misplaced precision.
abstract: This article agrees that the plethora of terms and concepts found in the literature on homosexuality is confusing. However, it may be entirely appropriate given the complex and multidimensional nature of the phenomenon under investigation. Numerous examples from the history of other sciences are used to show that conceptual consensus is very slow in coming. In some advanced fields, researchers have learned that reality is best described using cluster concepts and fuzzy sets. This paper introduces the notions of extensive and intensive meanings and gives examples of how the meanings that researchers adopt are dependent on the questions they are studying.
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D003210:Concept Formation; D005783:Gender Identity; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D010684:Philosophy; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012933:Social Identification