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    Popper's methodological individualism was actually a form... — Carmelics
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    Popper's methodological individualism was actually a form of metaphysical or ontological individualism, not a purely methodological claim

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Popper's own writings in 'The Open Society' ground methodological individualism in his ontology of 'plastic controls,' treating individuals as causally primary real entities.
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    • 2.A method is justified by what it tracks; Popper's justification appeals to what society *really is*, collapsing the methodological into the ontological.
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    • 3.Philosophers like Bhargava and Zahle argue that any non-trivial methodological prescription presupposes a corresponding ontological commitment about the domain's structure.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Popper's explicit rejection of 'holism' was not merely epistemic but targeted what he took to be false claims about real social wholes having causal powers over individuals.
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    • 2.Rejecting ontological holism and endorsing methodological individualism are logically equivalent moves if the method is motivated solely by denying supra-individual causal reality.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Methodological individualism, stripped of interpretive justification, amounts to a claim about what the social world really consists of
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    • 2.Watkins reformulated methodological individualism as the claim that the ultimate constituents of the social world are individual people
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    • 3.A claim about the ultimate constituents of the world is an ontological claim, not merely a methodological one
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    Related

    A claim about the ultimate constituents of the world is an ontological claim, no...A method is justified by what it tracks; Popper's justification appeals to what ...Methodological individualism, stripped of interpretive justification, amounts to...Philosophers like Bhargava and Zahle argue that any non-trivial methodological p...
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    Popper's explicit rejection of 'holism' was not merely epistemic but targeted wh...Popper's own writings in 'The Open Society' ground methodological individualism ...Rejecting ontological holism and endorsing methodological individualism are logi...Watkins reformulated methodological individualism as the claim that the ultimate...

    Similar

    Fodor's use of the label 'individualism' for methodological individual...89%Watkins reformulated methodological individualism as the claim that th...86%Hayek does not mention methodological individualism after the 1950s82%Equating methodological individualism with rational choice theory fail...81%

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    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
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    Details

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