@article {8543197, title = {Do mechanism-based social explanations make a case for methodological individualism?}, journal = {JOURNAL FOR GENERAL PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE}, volume = {50}, number = {2}, year = {2019}, pages = {263{\textendash}282}, abstract = {

In the recent philosophy of social science literature, we notice an increasing support for mechanism-based social explanations. Earlier pleas for social mechanisms were often closely linked to defenses of methodological individualism. However, more recent contributions by, e.g. Daniel Little and Petri Ylikoski, seem to be loosening that link and develop a more sophisticated account-ascribing a less important role to microfoundations. In this paper, we want to review the impact of the social mechanisms-approach on methodological individualism and draw more radical conclusions with regard to the individualism/holism debate, severing the link between the social mechanisms-approach and individualism. Four steps will be taken in severing the link: (a) there are more than two levels of social explanation; (b) levels of explanation are perspectival, thus neither absolute, nor unique; (c) seeking microfoundations has a heuristic value, but so has seeking macrofoundations; (d) there are no general preference rules with respect to the level of social explanations. In conclusion, the answer to the title question is that the social mechanisms approach does not strengthen the case for methodological individualism.

}, keywords = {Methodological individualism, PLURALISM, REDUCTION, Scientific explanation, Social explanations, Social mechanisms}, issn = {0925-4560}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10838-019-09446-w}, author = {Van Bouwel, Jeroen} } @article {446322, title = {De-ontologizing the debate on social explanations: a pragmatic approach based on epistemic interests.}, journal = {Human Studies}, volume = {31}, number = {4}, year = {2008}, pages = {423{\textendash}442}, abstract = {

In a recent paper on realism and pragmatism published in this journal, Osmo Kivinen and Tero Piiroinen have been pleading for more methodological work in the philosophy of the social sciences-refining the conceptual tools of social scientists-and less philosophically ontological theories. Following this de-ontologizing approach, we scrutinize the debates on social explanation and contribute to the development of a pragmatic social science methodology. Analyzing four classic debates concerning explanation in the social sciences, we propose to shift the debate away from (a) the ontologizing defenses of forms of social explanation, and (b) a winner-takes-all-approach. Instead, we advocate (c) a pragmatic approach towards social explanation, elaborating a rigorous framework for explanatory pluralism detached from the debates on social ontology.

}, issn = {0163-8548}, author = {Van Bouwel, Jeroen and Weber, Erik} } @article {365927, title = {De idee van emergentie in de sociologie: perspectieven en problemen}, journal = {Tijdschrijft voor sociologie}, volume = {27}, number = {4}, year = {2006}, pages = {337{\textendash}350}, issn = {0777-883X}, author = {Van Bouwel, Jeroen} } @article {334986, title = {The division of labour in the social sciences versus the politics of metaphysics. {Q}uestioning Critical Realism{\textquoteright}s interdisciplinarity}, journal = {Graduate Journal of Social Science}, volume = {2}, number = {2}, year = {2006}, pages = {32{\textendash}39}, abstract = {

Some scholars claim that Critical Realism promises well for the unification of the social sciences, e.g., Unifying social science: A critical realist approach in this volume. I will first show briefly how Critical Realism might unify social science. Secondly, I focus on the relation between the ontology and methodology of Critical Realism, and unveil the politics of metaphysics. Subsequently, it is argued that the division of labour between social scientific disciplines should not be metaphysics-driven, but rather question-driven. In conclusion, I will therefore defend a question-driven pluralism as a guide for interdisciplinarity.

}, issn = {1572-3763}, author = {Van Bouwel, Jeroen} }