The Not-so-trivial Truth of Methodological Individualism

1998 ◽  
pp. 69-76
Author(s):  
Maarten Franssen
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Intentional Stance ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intentional Psychology ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Entities

I defend the truth of the principle of methodological individualism in the social sciences. I do so by criticizing mistaken ideas about the relation between individual people and social entities held by earlier defenders of the principle. I argue, first, that social science is committed to the intentional stance; the domain of social science, therefore, coincides with the domain of intentionally described human action. Second, I argue that social entitites are theoretical terms, but quite different from the entities used in the natural sciences to explain our empirical evidence. Social entities (such as institutions) are conventional and open-ended constructions, the applications of which is a matter of judgment, not of discovery. The terms in which these social entities are constructed are the beliefs, expectations and desires, and the corresponding actions of individual people. The relation between the social and the individual 'levels' differs fundamentally from that between, say, the cellular and the molecular in biology. Third, I claim that methodological individualism does not amount to a reduction of social science to psychology; rather, the science of psychology should be divided. Intentional psychology forms in tandom with the analysis of social institutions, unitary psycho-social science; cognitive psychology tries to explain how the brain works and especially how the intentional stance is applicable to human behavior.

Introduction: The Anthropocene as Context and Concept for the Study of Higher Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
RYAN EVELY GILDERSLEEVE ◽  
KATIE KLEINHESSELINK
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Analytic Tool ◽  
The Social ◽  
Geologic Condition

The Anthropocene has emerged in philosophy and social science as a geologic condition with radical consequence for humankind, and thus, for the social institutions that support it, such as higher education. This essay introduces the special issue by outlining some of the possibilities made available for social/philosophical research about higher education when the Anthropocene is taken seriously as an analytic tool. We provide a patchwork of discussions that attempt to sketch out different ways to consider the Anthropocene as both context and concept for the study of higher education. We conclude the essay with brief introductory remarks about the articles collected for this special issue dedicated to “The Anthropocene and Higher Education.”

Positivism in the social sciences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Kincaid
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Social Research ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Social Convention ◽  
The Social

Positivism originated from separate movements in nineteenth-century social science and early twentieth-century philosophy. Key positivist ideas were that philosophy should be scientific, that metaphysical speculations are meaningless, that there is a universal and a priori scientific method, that a main function of philosophy is to analyse that method, that this basic scientific method is the same in both the natural and social sciences, that the various sciences should be reducible to physics, and that the theoretical parts of good science must be translatable into statements about observations. In the social sciences and the philosophy of the social sciences, positivism has supported the emphasis on quantitative data and precisely formulated theories, the doctrines of behaviourism, operationalism and methodological individualism, the doubts among philosophers that meaning and interpretation can be scientifically adequate, and an approach to the philosophy of social science that focuses on conceptual analysis rather than on the actual practice of social research. Influential criticisms have denied that scientific method is a priori or universal, that theories can or must be translatable into observational terms, and that reduction to physics is the way to unify the sciences. These criticisms have undercut the motivations for behaviourism and methodological individualism in the social sciences. They have also led many to conclude, somewhat implausibly, that any standards of good social science are merely matters of rhetorical persuasion and social convention.

How To Make No Sense of Marx

1989 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 105-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Mandel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Individual Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intentional Explanation ◽  
Individual Actions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Methodological Collectivism

Professor Jon Elster advances the proposal that Marx – and Marxists–really stand for ‘methodological individualism,’ as opposed to ‘methodological collectivism.’ He defines ‘methodological individualism’ in the following terms: Social science explanations are seen as three-tiered. First, there is a causal explanation of mental states, such as desires and beliefs … Next, there is intentional explanation of individual action in terms of the underlying beliefs and desires … Finally, there is causal explanation of aggregated phenomena in terms of the individual actions that go into them. The last form is the specifically Marxist contribution to the methodology of the social sciences.1

Carl Menger's theory of invisible-hand explanations

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Haller
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Individual

Carl Menger's theory of invisible-hand explanations is rooted in his methodology of the social sciences. Contrary to his 18th-century Scottish forerunners he explains both the emergence and the persistence of unplanned social institutions exclusively by the individual pursuit of perceived self-interest. Contrary to Hayek's evolutionary functionalism, Menger's theory is not confined to the explanation of efficient or beneficial institutions. And contrary to Buchanan and Vanberg's constitutional contractualism, it does not require that people form stable preferences over rules.

scholarly journals Realisation of Social Needs of Students in the Field of Education in Ukraine

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
T. G. Yermakova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
The Individual

Education of students in today’s conditions requires new ideas and concepts that are related to the peculiarities of the socio-economic situation in society, namely: revaluation of values, changes in priorities of prestigious professions, contradictory attitude to education in the labor market, lack of a clear youth policy, adequate to modern conditions.Today’s education should become not just one of the subsystems of the social sphere, which satisfies a number of personal needs, but also a specific domain of social life, in which the future is modeled, resources of development are formed, and the negative effects of the functioning of other social institutions are compensated. As a result, the education system essentially extends its sphere of influence. One of the most important characteristics of student youth is its social needs, a large proportion of which is implemented in the field of education. Concerning higher education, certain requirements are put forward regarding the implementation of social needs of student youth; at the same time it is the institutional environment that mostly influences the formation of student social.Defining the development vectors of the education system requires the search for answers to questions relating to contemporary students, its social needs and expectations in relation to higher education, as well as the clarification of the conditions correspondence that education creates to realize its demands. The article highlights the peculiarities of student social needs in the field of education and their implementation; the content of such concepts as «needs», «social needs», «educational needs» were clarified.It was emphasized that social needs are connected with the inclusion of the individual in the family, in various social groups and communities, in the various spheres of production and non-production activities, in the life of society as a whole. These are the needs for work, social and economic activity, as well as spiritual culture, that is, everything that is a product of social life. They are needs of a special kind, the satisfaction of which is necessary to support the life of the social person, social groups and society as a whole.Social needs are met by the organizational efforts of society members through social institutions. Satisfying needs ensures social stability and social progress, dissatisfaction generates social conflicts. Social institutions are the leading components of the social structure of society, which integrate and coordinate the actions of society members, social groups and regulate social relations in various spheres of public life. Four groups of social needs were defined:- Vital for the social person needs, whose dissatisfaction leads to the elimination of a social person or the revolutionary transformation of social institutions, within which this satisfaction occurs;- Needs, the satisfaction of which ensures the functioning of the social person at the level of social norms, as well as allows the evolution of social institutions to be realized;- Needs, the satisfaction of which occurs at the level of minimum social norms, which ensures the preservation of the social person, but not its development; - Needs, the satisfaction of which provides comfortable (for data of socio-cultural area and social time) conditions of operation and development.The article gives attention to the relation between the concepts of «social needs» and «educational needs» and shows where they overlap. The existence of educational needs is an essential feature of students. Educational need is a need arising from the contradiction between the existing and necessary (desired) level of education and encourages the person to eliminate this contradiction.Educational needs were defined as the needs for the formation of the education means of those personal qualities that contribute to personal self-realization and the formation of personal qualities in the field of education that will enable them to obtain the desired social benefits and improve the social well-being of the individual. Such qualities are: high level of intellectual development; theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for professional activity; communicative skills and a high level of culture; personal qualities (integrity, workability, creativity, etc.). Education itself is a factor that allows the formation and accumulation of socially significant qualities in an individual’s arsenal that enable them to receive the benefits, satisfy the urgent needs and be realized as an active and active-oriented member of society.It was emphasized that in today’s conditions, students according to their characteristics are quite different from all other sections of the population, first of all ideological formation, influence mobility and their kinds of needs, which to a great extent determine its social well-being.Social needs of students are considered in connection with the functions of education, primarily with the functions of intelligence reproduction of society, vocational, economic and social. The article used data from nationwide surveys of students «Higher Education in Ukraine: Students’ Public Opinion» and «Higher Education in Reform Conditions: Changes in Public Opinion» conducted by Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation in 2015 and 2017 respectively; the data of a sociological survey «Values of Ukrainian Youth», conducted in 2016 by the Center for Independent Sociological Research «OMEGA», by request of Ministry of Youth and Sport of Ukraine.Based on the data of sociological research, we concluded that the level of social needs satisfaction of students in the field of higher education is not high. We need more detailed analysis of students who are studying at various educational institutions, as well as to identify the trends that are characteristic for education sections in different areas of study.

scholarly journals Is Trauma a Social Phenomenon That Leads to Gang Involvement?

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Leksen
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Youth Gang ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Gang Involvement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Need For Support ◽  
Life Path ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Societal Responsibility

This paper examines the effects of trauma on youth gang involvement. It focuses on the repercussions that trauma can have on youth, which may result in them looking for like-minded adolescents who are in gangs. The need for support can stem from the reoccurring trauma that the individuals face at an early age and the gang can appear as a safe haven from their lives. This paper argues that the experiences of direct and indirect trauma can put these adolescents on a different life path compared to their peers. Youth need to be actively supported in their families and in the education system in order to succeed. The way society reacts and responds to adolescents who are experiencing trauma will set the tone on how they develop in the future. These youth should be seen as a societal responsibility, and when they are left behind or fall through the cracks of certain social institutions, it should be seen as a failure by the social system and not the individual being seen as a failure. Because of these failures, trauma is a social phenomenon that can lead to youth gang involvement.

scholarly journals Introducing the concepts and methods of humanism into education for ensuring quality sustainable development

2021 ◽  
Vol 277 ◽  
pp. 06008
Author(s):  
Mykola Popovych ◽  
Vasyl Levkulych ◽  
Yuriy Khodanych ◽  
Tereziia Popovych
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Educational Philosophy ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Science Management ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Humanism as a principle for sustainable development of society, a model for the management of education and public education, is recognized as a fundamental principle by proponents of various schools of thought, social science, management and philosophy, and pedagogy. In their view, the philosophy of education and upbringing should clearly delineate the range of humanistic and moral values, define the social institutions designed to form an orientation towards these values, justify the relationship between the individual and the social qualities of the individual that could contribute to the “spirit of democracy” in society. However, addressing these important issues requires an exploration of morality identifying its nature, its functions in cognizing the world, and how it differs from other forms of cognition. According to the proponents of this socially-oriented direction of the management and educational philosophy, an important aim of education and upbringing is to develop the individual’s ability to reflect on moral topics; and this, they argue, is achieved mainly through the “language of morality” logic.

scholarly journals SOCIOCULTURAL DETERMINANT OF THE SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE PHENOMENON

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Yuriі Boreiko
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Symbolic Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual

The article analyzes the sociocultural basis of constituting the symbolic space, the content of the symbolic violence phenomenon, the cultural and symbolic potential of the toponymics objects. It is established that practices of symbolic violence consist in constructing a system of subjective coordinates by imposing rules, senses, meanings, values that become self-evident. Symbolic space encompasses the collective consciousness of the socio-cultural community and has the ability to form a system of subjective coordinates where the individual's life activity unfolds. The intelligibility of symbolic space is conventionally established, which is provided by the process of socialization. Pursuing the goal of domination, hegemony, coercion, symbolic violence moves the real confrontation into a symbolic environment, directing the influence on the mental structures of the social subject. Giving to senses and meanings a legitimate character is a way to explain and substantiate social relations, their cognitive and normative interpretation. Accumulating the experience of community coexistence throughout its history, habitus is a set of dispositions that motivate an individual to a certain reaction or behavior. Habitus, which generates and structures practices, combines the individual tendency of the actor to act adequately to the situation, the interaction of actors in the community, and the interaction of the community and each of its members with reality. As a historically changing phenomenon, habitus determines the nature of interactions between individuals whose communication skills are consistent with the functioning of social institutions. An important component of the symbolic space and part of the cultural and historical discourse are the objects of toponymics, which explains the constant ideological and political interest in this segment of socio-cultural life. Objects of toponymics act as a marker of ordering social space, a tool for including the subject in socio-spatial landscapes. The renaming of toponyms demonstrates the connection between the social conditions in which it takes place and the reaction of the social relations entity to changes in the toponymic space.

scholarly journals Socialization of an individual: individualism and collectivism as reference points of the transformed society

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Kokh ◽  
Rustam S. Devityarov
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Individualism And Collectivism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New System

The problems of an individual’s socialization have always been relevant, but in the conditions of deep transformation of social institutions of the Russian society, they have become particularly acute and important. The radical nature of the reforms have determined the features of the social state, which consist in the formation of a fundamentally new social reality. The transition to a market economy and consumer society has led to a radical change in the world outlook, values, and value orientations of the population. In these conditions, new approaches to the socialization of the individual, the formation of qualities, and value orientations corresponding to the market society are necessary. The purpose of the article lies in determining the initial principles of human socialization in the changed Russian society based on the analysis of existing approaches in scientific knowledge. For this purpose, the authors have employed the methods of analysis and comparison of existing concepts of socialization. This article presents an analysis of socialization theories of domestic and foreign researchers, analysis of economic and socio-cultural factors in the formation of a new system of values and value orientations in Russian society. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the proposal to consider a balanced combination of individualism and collectivism as the initial principles of personal socialization in the process of forming new values and value orientations of individuals, as well as to consider the socialization of the individual in relation to the socialization of economic relations. The choice of a balanced and harmonious combination of individualism and collectivism as a guideline for the socialization of the individual in the transformed Russian society allows us to build a new system of socialization. This requires new methods of socialization of the individual, new ideological and value content of the social space.

scholarly journals The Societal Crisis and The Human Dignity: Epistemological View

wisdom ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ana Bazac
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Social ◽  
Will To Live ◽  
Individual Consciousness ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Autonomous State ◽  
Real State

The paper aims at emphasising the significances of the concept of dignity through the lens of the relational character of this concept. Even though it appeared in modernity as substantive/essence, as an autonomous state that might be attached to man – and it was developed in the frame of methodological individualism –, dignity is a construct depending on the historical and social relations, thus the culture and values dominant in a certain time. And, because the consideration of the others is assumed by the individual who internalises the intertwining and force of values in the way he seems to not detach his own being from dignity, the paper demonstrates that, although there is an ontological basis of dignity – the human conatus – the concept of dignity is incomprehensible without connect it to, or more, without integrating it within the social complex.First of all, the individual translation of the human conatus in the concept of dignity supposes the social character of man. The instruments of the individual, necessary for his survival, are social. The language through which he expresses his self-consciousness as his own dignity is social. The nuances his self-consciousness transposes as feelings and their expressions are borrowed from the culture known by the individual.But leaving this alone, and considering as a beginning of the analysis only the individual’s feeling of dignity as transposition of his/her will to live, this feeling is vague, ineffable and evanescent if it would not have the positive or negative reactions of society towards it. Indeed, society is the ultimate criterion of the individual consciousness of dignity, because it accredits this individual feeling. If, by absurd, there was no society – or the individual would live in an individual niche and would not know anything about society (but, for the sake of our philosophical experiment, he could express through meaningful words his feelings) – the individual would not be sure that he has a constitutive dignity and he deserves dignity. Only the others authorise this feeling, whether they endorse it or not, having the function of a thermometer measuring the individual belief.Methodological individualism is contradictory concerning the concept of dignity: on the one hand, it lauds to sky this concept (in its essentialist variant) as related to the individual, and on the other hand, it neglects the consequences of social relations over the real state of dignity of all the human beings.Finally, the paper links this relational standpoint to both the surpassing of the abstract individual and the clash of universalistic and particularistic values.

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