methodological individualism

theoretical positions holding that adequate sociological accounts necessarily involve reference to persons, their interpretations of their circumstances, and the reasons and motives for the actions they take. WEBER and POPPER both propose specifications by which all social categories, like ‘capitalism’ or ‘the state’, can be explicated by reference to real or abstract (‘idealized’) individuals or persons. In its more strident forms, methodological individualism proposes that all sociological explanations must begin and end with reference to individuals. To this, the standard objection is that individuals usually owe many of their defining features, e.g. of psychological disposition, to their cultures and their structural contexts, so the proposed termination is sociologically banal.

For a discussion of the issues see Lukes (1977). See also SITUATIONAL LOGIC AND SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS, HOLISM, STRATEGIC INTERACTION. Compare STRUCTURALISM, STRUCTURE AND AGENCY.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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References in periodicals archive

George was close to the Austrians on many of these themes, including methodological individualism. "The methodological individualism of George and Menger stems from a realization that economists' 'inside' knowledge of human motives and decision-making is a leading source of basic empirical generalizations" (Yeager 1954a, 238).

Leland Bennett Yeager: 1924-2018

Bylund offers a strong argument about the existence of firms by combining essential features of the Austrian School: methodological individualism, disequilibrium, uncertainty and heterogeneity of capital (Bylund, 2016, pp.

THE PROBLEM OF PRODUCTION: A NEW THEORY OF THE FIRM

Methodological individualism is what separates Hayek's historical empiricism from the Hazony variety.

A Bridge to Collectivism

In Das Wesen und der Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalokonomie (1908), Schumpeter developed and pioneered his methodological individualism which is acknowledged.

Schumpeter's Split Between "Pure" Economics and Institutional Economics: Why Methodological Individualism Was Not Fully Considered

Many books, documentaries, articles and reports conclude that methodological individualism is the motivational and driving force among Muslims to join terrorist activities.

Political sources of militancy

On the other hand, methodological individualism is the main instrument of researchers in studying the epistemology of social sciences today and represents a consequence of nominalism as intellectual attitude and method of research: the fact that in analysing social phenomena, only the individual who possesses his autonomous intentions and possibilities has explicative value.

Cultural diversity and the new politics of identity

Raymond Boudon, one of the most prominent French sociologists of the 1970s and 1980s, founded a "methodological individualism," rather distinct from the cultural phenomenon of individualization (Boudon & Bourricaud 1982).

IS DURKHEIM'S "SOCIOLOGISM" OUT-DATED? DEBATING "INDIVIDUALISM" IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

The microfoundations project is inherently reductionist, for the simple reason that methodological individualism is a core element of mainstream economics in all its variants.

J.E. King. The Microfoundations Delusion: Metaphor and Dogma in the History of Macroeconomics

Austrian Economics, or more precisely the Austrian School of Economics, is unique in providing a theoretical framework which, although distinctly different from Walrasian general equilibrium, rests on methodological individualism and the assumption of rationality of economic agents, two pillars of neoclassical economics, and leads to policy conclusions that are located to the "right" of the mainstream in pleading for unfettered markets, free trade and minimal government.

Austrian economics today

The stakes of this reunion are that "they both offer rigorous and profound alternatives to the methodological individualism of liberalism.

Between Hegel and Spinoza; a volume of critical essays