Wan, Poe Yu-ze (Author)
Science and Education
Volume: 21, no. 10
Issue: 10
Pages: 1545-1565
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Mario Bunge: Evaluations of His Systematic Philosophy”
Language: English
Analytical sociology, an intellectual project that has garnered considerable attention across a variety of disciplines in recent years, aims to explain complex social processes by dissecting them, accentuating their most important constituent parts, and constructing appropriate models to understand the emergence of what is observed. To achieve this goal, analytical sociologists demonstrate an unequivocal focus on the mechanism-based explanation grounded in action theory. In this article I attempt a critical appreciation of analytical sociology from the perspective of Mario Bunge's philosophical system, which I characterize as emergentist systemism. I submit that while the principles of analytical sociology and those of Bunge's approach share a lot in common, the latter brings to the fore the ontological status and explanatory importance of supra-individual actors (as concrete systems endowed with emergent causal powers) and macro-social mechanisms (as processes unfolding in and among social systems), and therefore it does not stipulate that every causal explanation of social facts has to include explicit references to individual-level actors and mechanisms. In this sense, Bunge's approach provides a reasonable middle course between the Scylla of sociological reification and the Charybdis of ontological individualism, and thus serves as an antidote to the untenable strong program of microfoundations to which some analytical sociologists are committed.
...MoreArticle Matthews, Michael R. (2012) Mario Bunge, Systematic Philosophy and Science Education: An Introduction. Science and Education (pp. 1393-1403).
Similar Citations
Article
Pickel, Andreas;
(2012)
Between Homo Sociologicus and Homo Biologicus: The Reflexive Self in the Age of Social Neuroscience
(/isis/citation/CBB001252232/)
Book
Feest, Uljana;
(2010)
Historical Perspectives on Erklären and Verstehen
(/isis/citation/CBB001230024/)
Article
Matthews, Michael R.;
(2012)
Mario Bunge, Systematic Philosophy and Science Education: An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001252225/)
Article
Cavallo, Andrew M.;
(2012)
On Mario Bunge's Definition of System and System Boundary
(/isis/citation/CBB001252237/)
Article
Michael Robert Matthews;
(2020)
Mario Bunge (1919–2020): Physicist, Philosopher, Champion of Science, and Citizen of the World
(/isis/citation/CBB471269461/)
Article
Marquis, Jean-Pierre;
(2012)
Mario Bunge's Philosophy of Mathematics: An Appraisal
(/isis/citation/CBB001252236/)
Article
Arthur, Richard T. W.;
(2012)
Virtual Processes and Quantum Tunnelling as Fictions
(/isis/citation/CBB001252229/)
Article
Seni, Dan Alexander;
(2012)
Do the Modern Neurosciences Call for a New Model of Organizational Cognition?
(/isis/citation/CBB001252231/)
Article
Slezak, Peter;
(2012)
Mario Bunge's Materialist Theory of Mind and Contemporary Cognitive Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001252230/)
Book
Andrea Pitasi;
(2023)
La matematica della società
(/isis/citation/CBB101212330/)
Article
Turner, Charles;
(2015)
Travels without a Donkey: The Adventures of Bruno Latour
(/isis/citation/CBB001551408/)
Article
Bond, Niall;
(2013)
Ferdinand Tönnies and Enlightenment: A Friend or Foe of Reason?
(/isis/citation/CBB001201146/)
Article
Virues-Ortega, Javier;
Hurtado-Parrado, Camilo;
Martin, Toby L.;
Julio, Flávia;
(2012)
Psycho-neural Identity as the Basis for Empirical Research and Theorization in Psychology: An Interview with Mario A. Bunge
(/isis/citation/CBB001252233/)
Article
Agassi, Joseph;
(2012)
Between the Under-Labourer and the Master-Builder: Observations on Bunge's Method
(/isis/citation/CBB001252226/)
Book
Marc Joly;
(2020)
Après la philosophie: histoire et épistémologie de la sociologie européenne
(/isis/citation/CBB219540123/)
Article
Dunne, Stephen;
(2014)
Figurational Sociology and the Rhetoric of Post-Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001420225/)
Article
Cordero, Alberto;
(2012)
Mario Bunge's Scientific Realism
(/isis/citation/CBB001252227/)
Essay Review
Michael R. Matthews;
(2016)
Mario Bunge: A Long and Productive Life
(/isis/citation/CBB944245974/)
Book
Mario Bunge;
(2016)
Between Two Worlds: Memoirs of a Philosopher-Scientist
(/isis/citation/CBB772723024/)
Article
Mahner, Martin;
(2012)
The Role of Metaphysical Naturalism in Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001252228/)
Be the first to comment!