Alexander Rosenberg - The Philosophy of Social Science
Chapter Five: Functionalism and Macrosocial Science
● Do the social sciences deal with facts about social institutions etc (social facts), or facts
about individuals?
○ if social facts are irreducible, then sociology/social sciences are
autonomous
○ methodological individualism = if there are social facts, they can be
reduced to facts about individuals
Holism and human action
● How can we establish social facts?
○ philosophical argument - intentional notions, explanations in terms of
beliefs, desires etc presuppose social facts
■ e.g. cashing a cheque cannot be explained to someone
who doesn’t understand the rules that give the exchange its meaning, and these
rules only make sense to someone who understands the institutions of persuasion,
enforcement etc
■ we cannot characterise such behaviour without reference
to meaning - an account of physical behaviour won’t capture the intentional
concepts
● hence reference to social facts is
unavoidable in individual explanations
○ methodological individualist - statements referring to social facts can
only be tested in observations about individuals
■ so such statements must be translatable to claims about
individuals
● but this doesn’t hold because not all
theoretical statements in physics can be translated into statements about
observations
● so rather, the test of statements that
transcend observations should be their explanatory power, not testability
○ in this case, the
philosophical argument doesn’t carry much weight, because
intentional descriptions (social facts) only describe - they do not
explain
○ holism must show not just that our descriptions of individual actions
presuppose social facts, but that our explanations of action presuppose social facts
■ but if the existence and interactions of individuals are
necessary and sufficient for the existence of society and social facts, then social
facts should be explicable in terms of facts about individuals (question begging?)
● one response for the holist is to claims
that the existence/interaction of individuals isn’t sufficient - society is
more than the sum of its parts
Chapter Five: Functionalism and Macrosocial Science
● Do the social sciences deal with facts about social institutions etc (social facts), or facts
about individuals?
○ if social facts are irreducible, then sociology/social sciences are
autonomous
○ methodological individualism = if there are social facts, they can be
reduced to facts about individuals
Holism and human action
● How can we establish social facts?
○ philosophical argument - intentional notions, explanations in terms of
beliefs, desires etc presuppose social facts
■ e.g. cashing a cheque cannot be explained to someone
who doesn’t understand the rules that give the exchange its meaning, and these
rules only make sense to someone who understands the institutions of persuasion,
enforcement etc
■ we cannot characterise such behaviour without reference
to meaning - an account of physical behaviour won’t capture the intentional
concepts
● hence reference to social facts is
unavoidable in individual explanations
○ methodological individualist - statements referring to social facts can
only be tested in observations about individuals
■ so such statements must be translatable to claims about
individuals
● but this doesn’t hold because not all
theoretical statements in physics can be translated into statements about
observations
● so rather, the test of statements that
transcend observations should be their explanatory power, not testability
○ in this case, the
philosophical argument doesn’t carry much weight, because
intentional descriptions (social facts) only describe - they do not
explain
○ holism must show not just that our descriptions of individual actions
presuppose social facts, but that our explanations of action presuppose social facts
■ but if the existence and interactions of individuals are
necessary and sufficient for the existence of society and social facts, then social
facts should be explicable in terms of facts about individuals (question begging?)
● one response for the holist is to claims
that the existence/interaction of individuals isn’t sufficient - society is
more than the sum of its parts
