Methodological Individualism - Introduction and Founding Texts

This book highlights the theoretical bases of methodological individualism, as defined and developed in the writings of its founders and early advocates. Making available in English texts by Menger, Schumpeter, Simmel and Weber, it provides key insights into one of the essential methodological paradigms in the social sciences.

List of contents

Chapter 1. The turmoiled emergence of methodological individualism within the social sciences landscape: a path to its understanding.
Chapter 2. Carl Menger (1883). On the theoretical understanding of social phenomena that are neither the products of convention nor of positive legislation, but the unintended results of historical development.
Chapter 3. Joseph Schumpeter (1908). Methodological individualism and the emergence of the marginalist school of economics.
Chapter 4. Georg Simmel (1905-1907). The intrinsic conditions of historical knowledge and the mental nature of history.
Chapter 5. Max Weber (1922). The basic concepts of sociology.

About the author

Nathalie Bulle is a sociologist research director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, Groupe d'Etude des Méthodes de l'Analyse Sociologique de la Sorbonne) in France. Her interest in the analysis of human thought, in its common or scientific form, is at the core of her work applied to educational ideas and the epistemology of the social sciences. She has published articles on methodological individualism in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, the Journal of Classical Sociology, and L'Année sociologique. http://www.nathaliebulle.com/

Product details

• Authors: Nathalie (National Center for Scientific Re Bulle, Bulle Nathalie
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 27.05.2025
• EAN: 9781032627038
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3262703-8
• No. of pages: 104
• Series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Social Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Methodology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Social Theory, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Research methods: general