  These three conceptions should not be seen as competing. In actual  practices of analysis, which are invariably richer than the accounts  that are offered of them, all three conceptions are typically  reflected, though to differing degrees and in differing forms. To  analyze something, we may first have to interpret it in some way,  translating an initial statement, say, into the privileged language  of logic, mathematics or science, before articulating the relevant  elements and structures, and all in the service of identifying  fundamental principles by means of which to explain it. The  complexities that this schematic description suggests can only be  appreciated by considering particular types of analysis.