In this original and important book, Harold Kincaid defends a view of the special sciences -- all sciences outside physics -- as autonomous and nonreducible. He argues that the biological and social sciences provide explanations that cannot be captured by explanations at the level of their constituent parts, and yet that this does not commit us to mysterious, nonphysical entities like vital forces or group minds. A look at real scientific practice shows that the many different sciences can be unified in a way that leaves them each an autonomous explanatory role. This book will be of great interest to philosophers of science and social scientists.

"Methodological individualism, for which all social phenomena must be explained in terms of what individuals think, choose, and do, is widely considered to be true. By challenging key individualist assumptions, Bhargava questions this view and rehabilitates a non-individualist methodology which permits an independent study of social practices and a context-specific inquiry into the beliefs and actions of individuals." "This book will be indispensable to students and scholars of political science, philosophy, sociology, history, and anthropology."--BOOK JACKET.

This collection of papers investigates the most recent debates about individualism and holism in the philosophy of social science. The debates revolve mainly around two issues: firstly, whether social phenomena exist sui generis and how they relate to individuals. This is the focus of discussions between ontological individualists and ontological holists. Secondly, to what extent social scientific explanations may and should, focus on individuals and social phenomena respectively. This issue is debated amongst methodological holists and methodological individualists. In social science and philosophy, both issues have been intensively discussed and new versions of the dispute have appeared just as new arguments have been advanced. At present, the individualism/holism debate is extremely lively and this book reflects the major positions and perspectives within the debate. This volume is also relevant to debates about two closely related issues in social science: the micro-macro debate and the agency-structure debate. This book presents contributions from key figures in both social science and philosophy, in the first such collection on this topic to be published since the 1970s.

Throughout the history of social thought, there has been a constant battle over the true nature of society, and the best way to understand and explain it. This volume covers the development of methodological individualism, including the individualist theory of society from Greek antiquity to modern social science. It is a comprehensive and systematic treatment of methodological individualism in all its manifestations.

Individualism embraces a wide diversity of meanings and is widely used by those who criticise and by those who praise Western societies and their culture, by historians and literary scholars in search of the emergence of 'the individual', by anthropologists claiming that there are different, culturally shaped conceptions of the individual or 'person', by philosophers debating what form social science explanations should take and by political theorists defending liberal principles. In this classic text, Steven Lukes discusses what 'individualism' has meant in various national traditions and across different provinces of thought, analysing it into its component unit-ideas and doctrines. He further argues that it now plays a malign ideological role, for it has come to evoke a socially-constructed body of ideas whose illusory unity is deployed to suggest that redistributive policies are neither feasible nor desirable and to deny that there are institutional alternatives to the market.

O'Neill, J. Scientism, historicism and the problem of rationality.--Hayek, F.A. From Scientism and the study of society.--Popper, K.R. From The poverty of historicism.--Brodbeck, M. On the philosophy of the social sciences.--Gewirth, A. Subjectivism and objectivism in the social sciences.--Rudner, R.S. Philosophy and social science.--Gewirth, A. Can men change the laws of social science?--Watkins, J.W.N. Ideal types and historical explanation.--Watkins, J.W.N. Historical explanation in the social sciences.--Watkins, J.W.N. Methodological individualism: a reply.--Agassi, J. Methodological individualism.--Scott, K.J. Methodological and epistemological individualism.--Mandelbaum, M. Societal facts.--Mandelbaum, M. Societal laws.--Gellner, E.A. Explanations in history.--Goldstein, L.J. The inadequacy of the principle of methodological individualism.--Goldstein, L.J. Two theses of methodological individualism.--Brodbeck, M. Methodological individualisms: definition and reduction.--Danto, A.C. Methodological individualism and methodological socialism.--Bibliography (p. 339-346).