Full Idea
Conceptual analysis is sometimes understood as the business of finding necessary and sufficient conditions by the method of possible cases.
Gist of Idea
Analysis is finding necessary and sufficient conditions by studying possible cases
Source
Frank Jackson (From Metaphysics to Ethics [1998], Ch.3)
Book Reference
Jackson,Frank: 'From Metaphysics to Ethics' [OUP 2000], p.60
A Reaction
Some (e.g. Stich) reject this, but it seems to me undeniable that the procedure can be very illuminating, even if it is never totally successful. Jackson prefers to see analysis as the study of entailments between stories about the world.