There are at least two distinct senses of the term "methodological individualism":
(1) All social phenomena can be explained in terms of individual persons and their states without reference to social facts or states (the nonreductive sense), and (2) All social phenomena can be explained _only_ in terms of individual persons and their states without reference to social facts or states (the reductive sense), i.e., there are no explanatory social facts or properties. The first view is probabaly false and probaly incoherent because the mental states of individuals are social states at least in part. But it's a harmless view if it is taken to say there is also social analysis. The second view is not only false and meaningless, but pernicious, and incompatible with historical materialism. I wrote a paper on this a decade ago, Metaphysical Individualism and Functional Explanation, Phil Science (1993). jks --- Eubulides <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "joanna bujes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 5:31 PM > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The concept of corruption > > > > > > > > > > > > > >>Corruption is defined as "the abuse of public > power for private gain." > > <snip> > > > The definition seems pretty good to me. What's > "methodological > > individualism"? > > > > Joanna > > ====================== > > It makes all politics and commerce corrupt by > definition. It also ignores > the problematzing of the public-private distinction. > > Who gets to decide what 'abuse of power' means? > > http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Scie/ScieFran.htm > > > Ian __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/
