The Ontology of Composition

Abstract

This chapter addresses ontological questions concerning the composition of social structures and entities, and their relationships to the actors who compose them. Our theories and ordinary language refer to governmental structures, institutions, and organizations at a range of levels: actors and officials, agencies, knowledge systems, social networks, and offices and bureaus. The philosophical position of ontological individualism maintains that all social phenomena are ultimately constituted by the social actors who make them up. However, the chapter also recognizes that we need to recognize the reality of higher-level social entities—institutions, normative systems, social identities, power relations, and social networks. The chapter argues that it is legitimate to postulate the existence of social entities; but it argues that social entities, forces, and conditions must have microfoundations at the level of the social actors who compose them. The chapter discusses the idea of a social actor as a socially constituted and socially situated individual with mental frameworks that guide his or her choices of action.