Chapter 2: Atomism

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Chapter 2 Atomism

• PHL 472
• Spring 2004

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Transition from Ch. 1 to Ch. 2

• In chapter 1, the question we we were asking was
  epistemological
• Epistemology is the study of knowledge and
  justified belief

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Transition from Ch. 1 to Ch. 2

• In this chapter, our question will not be of this
  kind, but will instead be a question of ontology
• Ontology is the study of being (the study of the
  basic types of things that exist and their
  natures)
• It is a branch of metaphysics the study of the
  basic constituents and relations of reality

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Transition from Ch. 1 to Ch. 2

• In particular, the question we will be asking in
  this chapter (and the next) is this
• What are the basic constituents of the social
  world?
• Is the social world nothing other than a
  collection of individuals, or are there social
  facts that are ontologically independent?

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Atomism

• The thesis that the basic units of social life
  are self-contained, essentially independent,
  separated entities

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Atomism

• According to atomists
• (1) Each person has a unique and privileged
  access to the contents of her own mind (the
  Privileged Access Thesis)

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Atomism

• According to atomists
• (2) Each person has the power to direct her own
  actions on the basis of her beliefs and desires
  (The Thesis of the Autonomy of Individuals)

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Social entities are reducible to, and explainable
  in terms of, the activities and properties of the
  individuals that comprise them

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Ontological Reduction
• Example facts about houses vs. facts about
  bricks, boards, nails, etc.

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Ontological Reduction
• To say that A facts are reducible to B facts is
  to say that facts of type B are, in some sense,
  ontologically prior to facts of type A (more
  basic and fundamental)

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Explanatory Priority
• If A facts reduce to B facts, then a full
  explanation of any A fact must be done in terms
  of B facts

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Methodological Individualism
• A thesis about the explanation of social facts
  according to which all social phenomena are to be
  explained in terms of the properties and actions
  of individuals

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Ontological Atomism
• A thesis about the nature of individuals
  according to which basic human needs, capacities,
  and motivations arise in each individual without
  regard to any specific features of social groups
  or social interaction

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Two famous Ontological Atomists
• (1) Thomas Hobbes Each person has a basic set of
  appetites, aversions, and abilities that exist
  regardless of social setting or interactions with
  others (including ability to use a language and
  be self-conscious)

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Assumptions of Atomism

• Two famous Ontological Atomists
• (2) Sigmund Freud Each individual has an
  undifferentiated instinctual force (known as the
  libido) that may manifest itself differently in
  different situations, but is essentially the same
  in everyone

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Atomism and Todays Intellectual Climate

• Liberal ideology we are who we are as
  individuals, not as members of some group
• Social conditions social mobility, capitalism,
  democracy, individual rights, and value pluralism