Introduction

(2023) Bulle N. and Di Iorio F. “Introduction”, in Nathalie Bulle and Francesco Di Iorio (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Methodological Individualism: Volume I. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Introduction Methodological individualism (henceforth MI) is an often criticized and misunderstood approach within the social sciences. A number of authors, who appear to be unfamiliar with MI’s history and theoretical foundations, regard it as a form of naïve and useless reductionism that cannot account for the cultural and structural features of the social world and the influence they exert on its actors. This interpretation does not do justice either to the way in which MI’s logic of explanation was conceived by the classical social scientists who implemented it, nor to the scholars who have followed in their footsteps. This, as well as other common misunderstandings - such as, for example, the tendency to confuse it with a merely utilitarian theory or a political ideology - highlights the need for a comprehensive and up-to-date reference work analyzing and presenting MI’s classic arguments and assumptions in the light of contemporary debates in sociology, economics and philosophy. As a scientific tradition, MI is rooted in the work of Enlightenment precursors such as Adam Smith and was fully developed in the late 19th century thanks to the seminal contributions of Carl Menger, Max Weber and Georg Simmel For more details about the historical emergence of Mi as a scientific paradigm see Bulle (forthcoming).. Its core concerns revolved around fundamental ontological, epistemological and methodological issues including the explanation of historical and social phenomena, actors’ rationality, and the relationship between micro and macro dynamics. As it is well known, the term MI is younger than the scientific practice to which it refers. The expression ‘individualist method’ appears already in the 19th century during the Methodenstreit between Carl Menger and the German Historical School. The term MI was used in 1904 by the French philosopher and historian Élie Halévy Halévy was not a theorist of MI. The term MI appears in his review of the talk on “the individual and the social” given by Vilfredo Pareto on September 7th, 1904 at The Second World Congress of Philosophy that was held in Geneva, Switzerland (see Halévy, 1904, p. 1108). We thank Massimo Borlandi (2020) for drawing our attention to Halévy’s review. . However, it was Joseph Schumpeter who popularized it in the scientific community through a book chapter that he published in 1908. It is no exaggeration to maintain with Max Weber ([1922] 1978) that by focusing on understandable “social action”, which often produces unintended consequences, MI addresses the central, “constitutive” problem of the social sciences. On this basis, MI aims to explain social enigmas. MI does not overlook the socio-cultural factors and the structural constraints that influence action. Instead, it is concerned with both, taking into consideration the subjective meaning they hold for individuals – a meaning that can be abstractly reconstructed by assuming that human action is based on a situated rationality. As already clarified at the beginning of the 20th century by Schumpeter (1909), MI is a strictly explanatory approach and is neutral to both ethical and political views. Unfortunately, this is a point that is still not always understood in the literature. This is the first handbook devoted to MI and it aspires to give fresh impetus to debates on this perspective. The goal is not only to clarify the aforementioned common misunderstandings about it, but also to demonstrate its utility as an explanatory tool in the light of the current debates within the social sciences. Given the historical and scientific importance of MI, the absence of a handbook dedicated to this important and complex tradition of theorizing was a glaring lacuna that needed to be filled. By bringing together contributions from the world’s leading experts on the topic, the present work is a big step in offering a reliable but nonetheless critical discussion of MI. This collective endeavor provides teachers, researchers and students in sociology, economics, and philosophy with a useful source of reference on this central approach of the social sciences. The historical and contemporary debates about MI are discussed and analyzed, as well as cutting edge developments within the individualist tradition with philosophical and scientific import. The handbook is divided into two volumes and organized into eight parts. Each volume includes four parts. Part I, The Founding Principles of Methodological Individualism and its Historical Emergence (volume 1). This part provides commentary on and analyses of classical reference texts written by the most eminent economists, sociologists and philosophers who have been proponents of MI, including Carl Menger, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Karl Popper. These texts lay the foundations for this approach and their study explains its rationale. Part I also focuses on Adam Smith’s precursory works on the principles of MI, Raymond Boudon’s distinction between holism and individualism and Jon Elster’s approach. Part II, Methodological Individualism and the Rationality Principle (volume 1). Individualist scholars, from Menger to Boudon, have consistently maintained that human rationality is fundamental to the understanding of social phenomena. However, the status of rationality is an area of considerable debate. Moreover, intense methodological battles have been fought over the very meaning of the concept of rationality itself. The purpose of this second part of the handbook is thus to analyze the most recent debates on this concept from the standpoint of MI. Part III, Methodological Individualism and the Micro-Macro Link (volume 1). This part is devoted to an exploration of the different levels of complexity involved in the explanation of social phenomena. Essays discuss, in particular, their ontological and epistemological status, as well as their relationships and the methodological conditions for moving from one to the other within the general framework of MI. Other topics such as the ties between MI and the theory of complex systems, the role of social institutions within the individualist explanatory model and the micro-macro link in economic theory are also discussed and analyzed. Part IV, Methodological Individualism and Other Major Intellectual and Scientific Traditions (volume 1). Part IV aims at clarifying the historical, conceptual, and epistemological relationships between MI and other major traditions of theorizing such as the Durkheimian approach, structural-functionalism, organizational theory, hermeneutics, analytic philosophy of action, sociology of knowledge, behavioral economics, and agent-based computational simulation. The analysis of the relationships between MI and these other intellectual and scientific traditions is a useful way to appreciate the proper nature of the individualist tradition and its complexity. Part V, Methodological Individualism and Key Research Topics in the Social Science and Humanities (volume 2). This part highlights the role of MI in the development of the understanding of fundamental social phenomena, such as social movements, adherence to social norms, collective beliefs, religions, and ideologies, that have traditionally been accounted for by using holistic approaches. The analysis of the explanation of social change in terms of MI, as well as the relationship between MI and collective intentionality, are also explored and investigated. Part VI, Analytical Tools and Exemplary Case Studies (volume 2). Part VI examines the explanatory power of MI from the standpoint of empirical research. The chapters of this part offer a series of case studies that are inspired by MI and highlight, among other things, the heuristic value of basic mathematical models in MI. Part VI deals with the individualist explanation of concrete phenomena related to history, organizational theory, traditional societies, collective action, religion, the unintended consequences of human action, collective identities and radicalization. Part VII, Controversial Issues about Methodological Individualism (volume 2). This part focuses on contemporary philosophical and methodological debates about MI, its meaning and its explanatory power. Particular attention is paid to the interpretation of MI in terms of naïve reductionism, which today dominates Anglo-American philosophy. Part VII focuses, among other things, on the limits of the utilitarian individualism used by mainstream orthodox economists, the relationship between MI and cognitive science and the relationship between MI and symbolic interactionism. Part VIII, Methodological Individualism and its Critics: A Roundtable Discussion (volume 2). The last part of the handbook holds a discussion between its coeditors and some of the most eminent critics of MI, namely Stephen Lukes, Joseph Agassi and Daniel Little. The focus is on the following relationships: (i) MI, naïve reductionism and social facts; (ii) MI and institutional individualism; and (iii) MI and methodological localism. This part also includes a list of questions for Margaret Archer, who was originally supposed to take part in this stimulating roundtable to debate the interpretation of MI within critical realism, but finally could not due to personal reasons. References Halévy, E. (1904). (Report on the) General Session (of the 11th Congress of Philosophy - Geneva). Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 12 (6), 1103-1113. Borlandi, M. (2020). Raymond Boudon’s methodological individualism. European Journal of Social Sciences, 58(1), 239-266. Bulle N. (forthcoming). Methodological Individualism: Introduction and Founding Texts. London: Routledge (Open Access). Schumpeter, J. A. ([1908]2009). The Nature and Essence of Economic Theory. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction. [Transaction. Das Wesen und der Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie. Leipzig: Verlag von Duncker]. Weber, M. ([1922] 1978) Economy and Society. University of California Press: Berkeley. 5