Blackwell Reference Online

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P hilosophy of social science Also called methodological holism, a collective or holistic approach to social phenomena. In contrast to the assertion of methodological individualism that all explanations of social phenomena must be reduced to facts about individuals , methodological collectivism holds that collective phenomena are explanatorily prior to facts about individuals. Social wholes are much better known and more immediately accessible than the individuals that constitute them. Whilst we can learn much from the study of aspects of individual humans and their actions, the social whole has its own sophisticated and complex laws that cannot be defined by appeal to the features of its component individuals. Facts about society cannot be reduced to the decisions, attitudes, and dispositions of the individuals. The social whole is a real entity and is the basis for making sense of the description of individuals, for in most of their activities individuals behave in culturally sanctioned ways. Methodological collectivism was developed by Comte and Durkheim. Hegelians and Marxists are also generally regarded as methodological collectivists. “[M]ethodological collectivism [is the] tendency to treat ‘wholes’ like ‘society’ or the ‘economy’, ‘capitalism’ (as a given historical ‘phase’) or a particular ‘industry’ or ‘class’ or ‘country’, as definitely given objects about ... log in or subscribe to read full text