ontological individualism

philosophy

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July 17, 2026

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Ontological individualism is a philosophical stance within ontology that asserts social groups, processes, and events are fundamentally composed of individuals and their actions. This view posits that any explanation of collective phenomena must ultimately be reducible to facts about individuals, their beliefs, desires, and behaviors.1

It stands in contrast to theories that consider institutions and collectivities as having an independent reality beyond the individuals within them. Ontological individualism argues against the idea of "social wholes" or emergent properties of groups that cannot be explained by the sum of their individual parts.1

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individualism
…closely related view, sometimes called ontological individualism, is the thesis that social or historical groups, processes, and events are nothing more than complexes of individuals and individual actions. Methodological individualism precludes explanations that appeal to social factors that cannot in turn be individualistically explained. Examples are Durkheim’s classic account of…
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…closely related view, sometimes called ontological individualism, is the thesis that social or historical groups, processes, and events are nothing more than complexes of individuals and individual actions. Methodological individualism precludes explanations that appeal to social factors that cannot in turn be individualistically explained. Examples are Durkheim’s classic account of…
Read More