沙蒙的個體主義方法論：一個社會科學的分析

Abstract

沙蒙（Wesley Salmon）宣稱其因果關係理論能夠應用在所有的科學學科中，但若將其應用在社會科學中，將會導致方法個體論，也就是近來爭議不斷的方法論預設。支持方法個體論的科學家與哲學家認為，每個社會科學的說明都必定包含人類個體的意向態勢。某些版本的個體主義方法論支持化約論的立場，主張所有群體層級的說明能被被化約為個體層級的說明，這個版本的個體主義方法論也因此遭受不少挑戰，其中幾個挑戰來自金凱德（Harold Kincaid）與索伊爾（R. Keith Sawyer）引用心智哲學的論證，他們提出四個建構橋律將面臨的難題：多重實現、行動的社會眽絡依賴性、個體語詞的社會預設以及失控的選言。因為方法個體論所面對的種種難題，沙蒙的因果關係理論在應用於社會科學說明上也同樣困難重重。 本篇文章將為方法個體論辯護，說明方法個體論的主要爭議點在於其化約論主張，並引用索伊爾提出的個體/群體層級與物理/心智層級的類比論證，解釋沃特金斯的方法個體論不須預設化約論的立場。因此，方法個體論不需面對上述的化約論的各種難題，而隱含方法個體論的沙蒙因果說明理論能夠正確地應用在社會科學的因果說明中。

Wesley Salmon claims that his theory of causation can apply to not only fundamental sciences such as physics and chemistry, but also special sciences like social science and biology. However, Salmon’s theory implies methodological individualism which is controversial these decades. Methodological individualists assert that every explanation of social sciences must appeal human’s actions, desires and beliefs. Some strong versions of methodological individualism purport to reductionism which means all explanation of collective level can be reduced to the explanations of individual level. Reductionism encounters several challenges, some of them are provided by Harold Kincaid and R. Keith Sawyer. They quote four arguments from philosophy of mind to argue against reductionism: multiple realizability, social dependence of actions, social assumption of individual terms, and wild disjunction. Since Salmon’s theory implies the thesis of methodological individualism, they share these difficulties. In this paper, I will argue in defense of methodological individualism and Salmon’s theory of causation by introducing Sawyer’s non-reductive individualism, showing that reductionism is not necessary for Watkins’ methodological individualism. Therefore, methodological individualists can avoid those difficulties reductionists face, and Salmon’s theory of causation could apply to causal explanations of social sciences.