Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Although the properties of being social and of being socially constructed are indispensable to our understanding of social reality, social metaphysicians are unclear about how they're related. In this paper, I argue that whereas everything that's socially constructed is also social, not everything that's social is also socially constructed. In particular, I argue that something is what I call "fundamental relative to social reality," something that's social but not also socially constructed. I sketch an account of fundamentality relative to social reality, and argue that it both clarifies how the properties of being social and of being socially constructed are related, and captures their significance for our understanding of social reality per se.
Source: Philosophical Studies
Author: Emilie Pagano
Institution: Binghamton University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,190
Funder: Austrian Science Fund
Award: G5207368950
OpenAlex ID: W4416781184