An Alternative to Methodological Individualism: A Non-Reductionist Approach to Studying Technology Adoption by Groups

Nominalism and Systemism: On the Non-Reductionist Nature of Methodological Individualism

This paper investigates the systemic nature of methodological individualism. According to widespread belief, the notion of autonomy of the actor that is defended by methodological individualism is mistaken because it is incompatible with the study of society in terms of its organized structure. We argue that this viewpoint must be rejected. In our opinion, it stems from confusion between ontolo...

Is Methodological Individualism a Reductionist Approach?

A Century of Methodological Individualism Part 1 : Schumpeter and Menger

2009 marks the centenary of methodological individualism (MI). The phrase was first used in English in a 1909 QJE paper by Joseph Schumpeter. Yet after 100 years there is considerable confusion as to what the phrase means. MI is often invoked as a fundamental description of the methodology both of neoclassical and Austrian economics, as well as other approaches, from New Keynesianism to analyti...

Explaining institutions: A defence of reductionism

New institutionalism is an approach to the study of social events that is becoming increasingly popular. Different lines of new institutional research can be distinguished. In one line of research it is argued that the social sciences should transcend reductionist modes of explanation, in particular the methodological individualism exemplified by the theory of rational choice. In this view, red...

Mapping Minds across Cultures

Anthropology is the study of the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. It has been considered part of cognitive science since that enterprise was organized in the 1970s (Gardner, 1985; D’Andrade, 1995), but anthropology is also classed as a social science because of its concern with groups and cultural interactions. Ironically, cognitive anthropology has waned as a practice with...