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The Interdisciplinary Research Programme of Methodological Individualism: Back to Its Foundations

Author

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  • Francisco J. Bellido

    (NOVA - Universidade Nova de Lisboa = NOVA University Lisbon)

Abstract

According to methodological individualism any scientific explanation in social sciences should have recourse to individual beliefs, wishes, intentions and actions. This article sets forth two practical reasons to endorse a clear-cut, classical version of methodological individualism as an interdisciplinary research programme in the social sciences. The first one is that methodological individualism should lead to hypotheses that can be empirically refuted. For instance, public choice theory is open to refutation and not trivially true. The second reason is that methodological individualism allows to transfer strategies and results between the social sciences. The present article questions highly sophisticated accounts of methodological individualism. It suggests five tenets to be a valid interdisciplinary research programme in the social sciences underscoring an intuitive language to analyze social phenomena. By doing so, it reviews some distinctive features of methodological individualism: Max Weber's ideal types, Joseph Schumpeter's notion of given behaviour, Friedrich Hayek's concept of individual action and Jon Elster's account of social mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco J. Bellido, 2024. "The Interdisciplinary Research Programme of Methodological Individualism: Back to Its Foundations," Working Papers hal-04446410, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04446410
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04446410
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