Abstract
In this introduction, we briefly introduce the concept of social ontology, a fertile sub-field of contemporary analytic metaphysics, and present the motivation for the present volume, which is largely though not exclusively historical in scope. We explain that philosophers in the ancient, medieval, and early modern world, with an emphasis on the medieval tradition, likewise took up questions and issues that are now discussed by philosophers working in social ontology. We then present the contents of the volume and suggest further lines of research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
There is some discussion about what is the most appropriate object of study in social ontology, with contemporary philosophers focusing on different items (entities, facts, events, kinds, etc.). For further discussion see Epstein (2016), who prefers to discuss social facts although he too refers to social entities in Epstein (2018). John Searle argues that ‘the fundamental unit of analysis in social ontology is not social objects but Social Facts, specifically Institutional Facts’ (2014, 17). For a discussion of institutional facts, which are a sub-class of social facts and Searle’s particular notion, see Searle (2010, especially c. 5).
- 2.
For instance, see Searle (2010, 4–5) who is concerned to give an account of the social world that does not multiply worlds and must cohere with the ‘basic facts of the structure of the universe […] given by physics and chemistry, by evolutionary biology and the other natural sciences.’
- 3.
Epstein writes that social ontology is an ‘account of how the social world is built. What are its building blocks and how do they come together to build it [...] it is the study of ontological building relations between different kinds of entities’ (2016, 149). He notes that philosophers have suggested composition, supervenience, constitution, etc. as the sorts of relations that hold between the building blocks of a social entity upon which the social entity depends in some way. He goes on to argue for both grounding and anchoring conditions for social facts.
- 4.
The reader should be aware that most of the philosophers studied today in the history of medieval philosophy were in fact professionally-trained theologians teaching in the theology faculties of European universities or at various religious houses. It is perhaps more accurate to refer to them as ‘philosopher-theologians’ and these include figures like Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William Ockham. There were also philosophers who taught in arts faculties, like John Buridan. Moreover, figures in the legal tradition, both canon and civil law, contributed to medieval political thought.
- 5.
In his contribution, Stephan Zimmermann makes this helpful distinction to get a handle on different kinds of theories of social ontology.
- 6.
References
Avicenna. 1968. Liber de anima seu sextus de naturalibus IV–V, ed. S. van Riet. Louvain/Leiden: Brill.
Epstein, Brian. 2014. Social Objects Without Intentions. In Institutions, Emotions, and Group Agents. Contributions to Social Ontology, eds. A. Konzelmann Ziv and H. B. Schmid, 53–68. Studies in the Philosophy of Sociality 2. Dordrecht: Springer.
———. 2015. The Ant Trap. Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2016. A Framework for Social Ontology. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46 (2): 147–167.
———. 2018. Social Ontology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/social-ontology/. Accessed 13 Mar 2019.
Gilbert, Margaret. 2014. Joint Commitment: How We Make the Social World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kobusch, Theo. 1996. Sein, Moralisches. In Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, ed. J. Ritter and K. Gründer, vol. 9, 237–247. Basel: Schwabe.
———. 1997. Die Entdeckung der Person. Metaphysik der Freiheit und modernes Menschenbild. 2nd edn (1st edn 1993). Freiburg i.Br./Basel/Wien: Herder.
Pelletier, Jenny. 2021a. Kingdoms and Crowds: Ockham on the Ontology of Social Groups. British Journal of the History of Philosophy 29 (1): 24–44.
———. 2021b. Ockham on Human Freedom and the Nature and Origin of Lordship. In State and Nature: Essays in Ancient Political Philosophy, ed. Peter Adamson and Christof Rapp, 393–413. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
———. 2020. Social Powers and Mental Relations. William Ockham on the Semantics and Ontology of Lordship and Ownership. Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 8: 248–276.
Rode, Christian. 2014. Olivis Ontologie des Rechts und des Sozialen. In Das Gesetz – The Law – La Loi, ed. Andreas Speer and Guy Guldentops, 371–382. Miscellanea Mediaevalia 37. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
———. 2021. Peter of John Olivi on Social Ontology. In Peter of John Olivi: Construction of the Human Person. Anthropology, Ethics, and Society. Acts of the Colloquium of Rome (4–6 October 2018), ed. Stève Bobillier and Ryan Thornton, 235–257. Rome: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas.
———. 2022. Soziale Ontologien des Mittelalters. Der Status der politischen Gemeinschaft und das Mängelwesen Mensch. Münster i.W.: Aschendorff.
Ritchie, Katherine. 2015. The Metaphysics of Social Groups. Philosophical Compass 10 (5): 310–321.
Searle, John R. 2010. Making the Social World. The Structure of Human Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2014. Are There Social Objects. In Perspectives on Social Ontology and Social Cognition, ed. M. Gallotti and J. Michael, 17–26. Studies in the Philosophy of Sociality 4. Dordrecht: Springer.
Schmitt, Frederick F., ed. 2003. Socializing Metaphysics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Spindler, Anselm. 2019. Politics and Collective Action in Thomas Aquinas’s On Kingship. Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (3): 419–442.
Toivanen, J. 2021. The Political Animal in Medieval Philosophy. Leiden: Brill.
Toste, M. 2014. The Naturalness of Human Association in Medieval Political Thought Revisited. In La nature comme source de la morale, ed. M. van der Lugt, 121–156. Florence: SISMEL—Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Schweikard, David P. and Hans Bernhard Schmid. 2013. Collective Intentionality. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/collective-intentionality/. Accessed 8 Sep 2020.
Zahle, Julie, and Finn Collin, eds. 2014. Rethinking the Individualism/Holism Debate: Essays in the Philosophy of Social Science. Cham: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pelletier, J., Rode, C. (2023). Introduction to the Reality of the Social World: Medieval, Early Modern, and Contemporary Perspectives on Social Ontology. In: Pelletier, J., Rode, C. (eds) The Reality of the Social World. Historical-Analytical Studies on Nature, Mind and Action, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23984-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23984-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-23983-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-23984-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)