methodological individualism

Methodological individualism is a principle in social science and philosophy that posits that complex social phenomena should be explained by appealing to the actions and beliefs of individuals. This approach contrasts with explanations that rely on group-level factors without reference to individual behavior.12

The core idea is that any large-scale social event or process can ultimately be understood by examining the choices, desires, and actions of individual people. This perspective is closely related to ontological individualism, which asserts that social groups are essentially collections of individuals and their actions.1

Methodological individualism emphasizes clear articulation and rational discussion of arguments, often employing tools from analytic philosophy and economics, such as rational-choice theory and game theory, to reconstruct and analyze social phenomena.12