Methodological individualism
In the
History within the Social Sciences
This framework was introduced as a foundational assumption within the social sciences by
Criticisms
Economist Mark Blaug has criticized over-reliance on methodological individualism in economics, saying that "it is helpful to note what methodological individualism strictly interpreted [...] would imply for economics. In effect, it would rule out all macroeconomic propositions that cannot be reduced to microeconomic ones [...] this amounts to saying goodbye to almost the whole of received macroeconomics. There must be something wrong with a methodological principle that has such devastating implications".[5]
Similarly, the economist Alan Kirman has critiqued general equilibrium theory and modern economics for its "fundamentally individualistic approach to constructing economic models", and showed that an individualist competitive equilibrium is not necessarily stable or unique. However, stability and uniqueness can be achieved if aggregate variables are added, and as a result he argued "the idea that we should start at the level of the isolated individual is one which we may well have to abandon".[6]
See also
- Methodological holism
- Methodological pluralism
- Austrian School
- Praxeology
- Analytical Marxism – School of Marxist theory
References
- ^ Zahle, Julie, "Methodological Holism in the Social Sciences", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/holism-social/>.
- ^ Piana, Valentino (2020). "Pluralism". Economics Web Institute. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- ^ Heath, Joseph (2020), "Methodological Individualism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved September 18, 2021
- JSTOR 1807222.
- ISBN 0-521-43678-8.
- JSTOR 2234075.
Further reading
- Agassi, Joseph. "Methodological individualism."The British journal of sociology 11.3 (1960): 244–270.
- Kenneth J. Arrow (1994), "Methodological Individualism and Social Knowledge," American Economic Review, 84(2), pp. 1–9.
- Kaushik Basu (2008), "Methodological Individualism",
- Brian Epstein (2009), "Ontological Individualism Reconsidered", Synthese 166(1), pp. 187–213.
- ISBN 0-226-32093-6
- Geoffrey Hodgson, (2007) "Meanings of Methodological Individualism", Journal of Economic Methodology 14(2), June, pp. 211–226.
- Harold Kincaid (2008), "Individualism versus Holism," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, New York: Palgrave Macmillan
- Steven Lukes (1968), "Methodological Individualism Reconsidered", British Journal of Sociology 19, pp. 119–29.
- ISBN 9780865976313 Eprint.
- Joseph Schumpeter (1909), "On the Concept of Social Value", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 23(2), February, pp. 213–32.
- Lars Udéhn (2002), "The Changing Face of Methodological Individualism", Annual Review of Sociology, 28, pp. 479–507.