The Debate Between Methodological Individualism and Holism

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Explain and evaluate the debate between methodological individualism and holism. Introduction The explanatory variants of MI and holism are likely to be interdependent; both individualists and holists contribute meaningfully to the nature of social explanations. MI states that social phenomena are fully explained only when there is reference to the behaviour and action of individuals. Holism states that it is the study of collective forces, groups, and organisations that dictates the explanation of social phenomena . ‘Dictates’ implies that all social entities and theories in the world may not be reducible to individualist explanations; for example, the study of individual behaviour in Schelling’s neighbourhood segregation model may not be explained from a holist’s perspective, because the model can be reducible to individualist explanations, namely ‘individual innocuous preferences for like neighbours leads to complete segregation’. Additionally, social facts are ‘things’ that exist independently in and of themselves, irrespective of individuals’ actions. I contest that proponents of MI and holism conventionally present some or all of the following three arguments, of which I will refute individually. Notably, I only propose that the explanatory variants of MI and holism are both useful and can be employed symbiotically, and not that either MI or holism are superior to its counterpart. While the latter may logically follow from my refutation of the proceeding arguments, this is fallacious, because there are alternative theories such as functionalism and structuralism, whereby there is an attempt to strike a middle ground between the extremes of MI and holism. Since the superiority of either MI or... ... middle of paper ... ...: Emergence and Convergence. Oxford: Bergahn Books. (p. 248) Rafanell, Irene (2009). Durkheim’s Social Facts and the Performative Model: Reconsidering the Objective Nature of Social Phenomena. In: Sociological Objects. Wiley Online Library. (p. 1-29) Stein, David (2013). 27. DOD’s insulting ‘Bystander Intervention Tips”. Website link: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/03/21/exclusive-parody-of-dods-insultin-bystander-intervention-tips-56928. Last accessed 17 Dec 2013. Tambiah, Stanley J. Form and Meaning of Magical Acts. In: ‘Culture, Thought, and Social Action: An Anthropological Perspective’. USA: Harvard University Press. (p. 11) Wainwright, Louden. They Dying Girl That No-One Helped. In: ‘Genocide’ (p. 441) Watkins, J. W. N. (1957). 28. In: Martin, Michael and McIntyre, Lee C. Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science. United States: MIT Press. (p. 270)

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