Problems of Social Theory Based on Methodological Individualism : Focusing on Parsons and Rawls

ホウホウ　ロンテキ　コジン　シュギ　ニ　モトヅク　シャカイ　リロン　ノ　モンダイテン　パーソンズ　ト　ロールズ　ヲ　チュウシン　ト　シテ

トモエダ, トシオ

Tomoeda, Toshio

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

社会理論

パーソンズ

ロールズ

フィクションとしての個人

methodological individualism

social theory

Parsons

Rawls

individual as fiction

Articles

This paper explicates the problems of social theories based on methodological individualism, focusing on Parsons and Rawls as representatives of such theories. For Parsons’ social theory, we consider how to solve the problem of order. For Rawls’s social theory, we consider the theory of justice. What the two social theories share in common is that they are constructed on the assumption that an actor can make independent and autonomous decisions. I call an “actor who can make independent and autonomous decisions” an “individual as fiction.” By setting the “individual as fiction,” the “establishment of social order by stabilizing dyad relations” and “derivation of justice by democratic decision-making” becomes possible. However, social theory based on the “individual as fiction” cannot capture “overwhelming asymmetry” such as the rich and the poor, non-disabled and disabled, and the poor and refugees caused by war and conflict.