Organisation, Emergence and Cambridge Social Ontology

TY - JOUR

T1 - Organisation, Emergence and Cambridge Social Ontology

AU - Slade-Caffarel, Yannick

PY - 2020/9

Y1 - 2020/9

N2 - John Searle has mistakenly claimed that emergence is the central concept in the account of social ontology defended by Tony Lawson, the central figure in the project now regularly referred to as Cambridge Social Ontology. This is not the case. Rather, if any concept can be considered central for Lawson, it is organisation. In this paper, I explain how Searle could misunderstand Lawson and, in doing so, I bring out the importance of organisation for understanding how phenomena, both social and non‐social, are constituted.

AB - John Searle has mistakenly claimed that emergence is the central concept in the account of social ontology defended by Tony Lawson, the central figure in the project now regularly referred to as Cambridge Social Ontology. This is not the case. Rather, if any concept can be considered central for Lawson, it is organisation. In this paper, I explain how Searle could misunderstand Lawson and, in doing so, I bring out the importance of organisation for understanding how phenomena, both social and non‐social, are constituted.

KW - causal reduction

KW - downward causation

KW - emergence

KW - ontology

KW - organisation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089918345&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/jtsb.12251

DO - 10.1111/jtsb.12251

M3 - Article

SN - 0021-8308

VL - 50

SP - 391

EP - 408

JO - JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

JF - JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

IS - 3

ER -