I don't know whether he has rejected the view but if it is trivially true then if he rejects it then he contradicts himself. Something that is trivially true is a tautology and is true independently of what may be factually true. A trivial truth contains no information. An example would be: It is raining or it is not raining. This is true independently of weather conditions--of course actually you need to specify time place etc. to get a proposition and its negation disjoined. I think that he is just wrong. Methodological individualism is not trivially true.
Cheers, Ken Hanly --- Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In 1989, the sociologist and erstwhile Marxist Jon > Elster wrote that > > "The elementary unit of social life is the > individual human action. To > ex-plain social institutions and social change is to > show how they > arise as the result of the actions and interaction > of individuals. > This view, often re-ferred to as methodological > individualism, is in > my view trivially true." > > Am I correct to understand that he has since > rejected methodological > individualism? > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le > genti." (Go your own > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing > Dante. > Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
