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    Methodological individualism lacks a clear methodological... — Carmelics
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    Methodological individualism lacks a clear methodological rationale when social science aims only at causal explanation rather than interpretation

    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Causal explanation in social science targets regularities and mechanisms, not the intentional structure of individual agency that grounds individualist reduction.
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    • 2.Macro-level social mechanisms (e.g., market equilibria, institutional path dependence) can be causally efficacious without decomposing into individual-level intentional states.
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    • 3.Philosophers like Jaegwon Kim show that higher-level causal explanations are legitimate when they pick out causal powers not captured at lower levels of description.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.In the causal-explanatory framework, the relevant units of analysis are determined by which variables best predict and explain outcomes, not by ontological priority of persons.
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    • 2.Statistical and structural causal models (Pearl, Woodward) identify causes at whatever level of aggregation yields stable interventionist relationships, which may be supra-individual.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Interpretive social science has a methodological reason to privilege individual actions because intentional states are the object of interpretation
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    • 2.If social scientists are merely providing causal explanations like natural scientists, there is no longer a methodological reason to privilege individual actions
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    2 topics

    Causation1 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    Causal explanation in social science targets regularities and mechanisms, not th...If social scientists are merely providing causal explanations like natural scien...In the causal-explanatory framework, the relevant units of analysis are determin...Interpretive social science has a methodological reason to privilege individual ...
    +3 moreShow less
    Macro-level social mechanisms (e.g., market equilibria, institutional path depen...Philosophers like Jaegwon Kim show that higher-level causal explanations are leg...Statistical and structural causal models (Pearl, Woodward) identify causes at wh...

    Similar

    If social scientists are merely providing causal explanations like nat...85%Interpretive social science has a methodological reason to privilege i...83%Methodological individualism, stripped of interpretive justification, ...83%Watkins reformulated methodological individualism as the claim that th...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: methodological-individualism
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    The problem that this creates for the doctrine of methodological individualism is readily apparent. A social science that aims at interpretation, or that uses interpretation as part of the centerpiece of its explanatory strategy, has a very clear methodological reason for privileging explanations that refer to individual actions – since it is precisely the underlying intentional states that serve as the object of interpretation. But if social scientists are merely in the business of providing ca
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit