Methodological dualism in linguistics occurs when its theories are subjected to standards that are inappropriate for them qua scientifi c theories. Despite much opposition, methodological dualism abounds in contemporary thinking. In this paper, I treat linguistics as a scientifi c activity and explore some instances of dualism. By extracting some ubiquitous aspects of scientifi c methodology fr...

This article asserts that traditionally dominant models of health promotion in the US are fairly characterized by methodological individualism. This schema produces a focus on the individual as the node of intervention. Such emphasis results in a number of scientific and ethical problems. I identify three principal ethical deficiencies: first, the health promotions used are generally ineffectiv...

The author explores the relationship between rationality, ethics, and space. He argues that the contemporary ethical project involves a derationalisation of ethics through a recorporealisation of space. There is a move away from the abstract space of liberal ^ individualist notions of justice to more enclosed and local spaces of communitarian loyalties and intersubjective communication. Postmod...

OBJECTIVES To compare the methodological and reporting quality of systematic reviews by authors from China and those from the United States (USA). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING From systematic reviews of randomized trials published in 2014 in English, we randomly selected 100 from China and 100 from the USA. The methodological quality was assessed using the Assessing the Methodological Quality of ...

Studies reporting sociometric assessments based on nominations have been characterized by important methodological inconsistencies when conducted in the middle school context. The purpose of this study was to examine (1) the possibility of a response bias when participants are provided with a long roster sorted alphabetically, (2) the impact of including or not other-sex peers in the voting pop...

Various authors allege that the theory of group selection is inconsistent with methodological individualism, and therefore analysts must reject at least one of these principles. The present article argues for their compatibility. The meaning of methodological individualism is clarified, and the new version of group selection (articulated by Wilson and Sober (1994, 1998)) is explained. The two p...

I propose a reinterpretation of Peirce’s theory of pragmaticism which sees it to cater a general methodological approach, as well as a historical counterpoint, to a multiplicity of issues arising in contemporary social and behavioural sciences. This interpretation deflects methodological individualism but integrates co-evolution, abduction and triadic forms of emergence into it. It follows that...

Twenty years after Poverty and Famines elaborated the entitlement approach as an innovative and holistic approach to famine analysis, debates about some of its fundamental assertions remain unresolved. This paper examines four limitations acknowledged by Sen himself: starvation by choice, disease-driven rather than starvation-driven mortality, ambiguities in entitlement speciŽ cation and extra-...

Throughout the 1990s we witnessed the spread of the concept of social capital in many of the social sciences and in particular in socio-economics. Its theorisation is due to sociologists who aimed at correcting methodological individualism due to its poor understanding of the collective and interactive nature of society. Here we argue that, despite the adoption of methodological individualism, ...

This paper brings together two sets of writing under development, but with common themes of rejection of concepts of unity, coherence and singularity that characterize modernity. However, they also reject the notions of fragmented individualism and nihilism that are seen in much postmodern thinking. In our search for ways of facilitating generation of meaning within and for those thinking/actin...