Is Analytical Action Theory Reductionist?
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Ian Carter
Abstract
Steven Lukes and Alasdair MacIntyre have accused analytical action theory of being motivated by reductionist aims and of ignoring the fact that what is distinctively human about actions is their essentially social character. These reductionist aims are said to ‘subvert’ the search for the distinctively human. Enterprises that have particularly come under fire (and which Lukes recommends ‘abandoning’) are the search for ‘basic’ actions and attempts to solve problems regarding the ‘individuation’ of actions. Lukes and MacIntyre are mistaken however, both in their interpretation of the aims which motivate analytical action theory, and in their characterisation of the search for the distinctively human. ‘lndividuated’ or ‘basic’ actions are not complex social actions reduced down to their ‘simplest elements’. They represent attempts to resolve problems which arise prior to the examination of the social character of actions.
© 1991 by Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart
Articles in the same Issue
- Die Dimensionen der Ungleichheit in der modernen Gesellschaft
- Max Weber and the Legitimacy of the Modern State
- Two Theorists of Action: Ihering and Weber
- Is Analytical Action Theory Reductionist?
- Rawls and the Socratic Ideal
- Objectivity of the Concepts of Health and Disease
- Wrong Register: Kindstötung als Nichtaufnahme in den Club
- Antwort auf eine ‘Richtigstellung’
Articles in the same Issue
- Die Dimensionen der Ungleichheit in der modernen Gesellschaft
- Max Weber and the Legitimacy of the Modern State
- Two Theorists of Action: Ihering and Weber
- Is Analytical Action Theory Reductionist?
- Rawls and the Socratic Ideal
- Objectivity of the Concepts of Health and Disease
- Wrong Register: Kindstötung als Nichtaufnahme in den Club
- Antwort auf eine ‘Richtigstellung’
