Emergence in Sociology: Contemporary Philosophy of Mind and Some Implications for Sociological Theory

R. Keith Sawyer

339 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Sociology

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Abstract

Many accounts of the micro‐macro link use the philosophical notion of emergence to argue that collective phenomena are collaboratively created by individuals yet are not reducible to explanation in terms of individuals. However, emergence has also been invoked by methodological individualists; they accept the existence of emergent social properties yet claim that such properties can be reduced to explanations in terms of individuals and their relationships. Thus, contemporary sociological uses of emergence are contradictory and unstable. This article clarifies this situation by developing an account of emergence based in contemporary philosophy of mind. The philosophical account is used to evaluate contradictory sociological theories. Several unresolved issues facing theories of emergence in sociology are identified.

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References

1984The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration 1990Foundations of social theory 2017Exchange and Power in Social Life 1951The Social System 1991Foundations of Social Theory 1958Social Behavior as Exchange 1971Dynamic models of segregation†1963Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms

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