Methodological Individualism Background, History and Meaning Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought Series

Throughout the history of social thought, there has been a constant battle over the true nature of society, and the best way to understand and explain it. This volume covers the development of methodological individualism, including the individualist theory of society from Greek antiquity to modern social science. It is a comprehensive and systematic treatment of methodological individualism in all its manifestations.

List of figures, Preface, Acknowledgements, 1 Introduction, 2 Background, 3 Psychologism in early social science, 4 Austrian methodological individualism, 5 Society as subjectively meaningful interaction, 6 Positivism in philosophy and social science, 7 Popperian methodological individualism, 8 Economics: the individualist science, 9 The new institutional economics, 10 Rational choice individualism, 11 Why methodological individualism?, 12 Methodological individualism restated, Notes, Bibliography, Index of author names, Index

Lars Udehn