Abstract
This chapter lays the groundwork for a realist analysis of the disappearance or ‘death’ of social forms, which is particularly relevant in societies experiencing intensified social transformation. Whilst the notion of morphogenesis can account both for the acceleration of change and for the multiplication of coexisting social forms, it does not allow us, on its own, to theorise their disappearance. Addressing this gap in the theory of morphogenesis opens interesting avenues for the philosophical study of society.
Our contribution is organised around three related questions. Firstly, how should we conceptualise the disappearance of social forms and can this conceptualisation draw from the biological conception of death? Secondly, how do concept-dependence and reflexivity differentiate social death from biological death? Thirdly, how can we observe and interpret the agonies that accompany the death of social forms?
We conclude by providing an illustration of how the theory might be applied to a case with significant current socio-economic ramifications: the disappearance of life-long employment in developed capitalist economies.
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Notes
- 1.
We use the term ‘social form’ following other realist authors. It incorporates narrower conceptions of social structure without being reducible to them.
- 2.
We are particularly grateful to Andrea Maccarini and Colin Wight who raised these issues at the January 2013 meeting of the Centre for Social Ontology.
- 3.
- 4.
Needless to say concept dependence does not imply that the enquirer is always correct in their classification of an entity in a given class. Natural history is littered with examples of misattributions that were corrected after further study.
- 5.
The case of human beings is arguably more complex as it can include psycho-somatic mechanisms.
- 6.
The fact that biological death is unaffected by interpretative activities should not lead one to assume that such interpretative activities are absent from the medical, legal and broader social practices related to dying. Legal definitions of death can, for example, vary across jurisdictions and over time in the same jurisdiction (for example, those bodies expressly frozen whilst they ‘await a cure’).
- 7.
The Oxford English Dictionary proposes the following etymology of Agony: ‘Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman agonye, Anglo-Norman and Middle French agonie (French agonie) mental struggle, anguish, distress (1160 in Old French as aigoine), death-agony, the throes of death (end of the thirteenth century in Anglo-Norman as agone), physical suffering, extreme pain (c1330), physical exertion or struggle (e.g. in battle) (second half of the fourteenth century), and its etymon (ii) post-classical Latin agonia mental struggle or anguish of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (Vetus Latina, Vulgate), anguish, distress (fourth century.), death-agony (from eleventh century in British and continental sources), tribulation, contest (from thirteenth century in British sources) < ancient Greek ἀγωνία contest, struggle for victory in the games, gymnastic exercise, mental struggle, anguish, in Hellenistic Greek with specific reference to Christ’s anguish in Gethsemane (New Testament: Luke 22:43) < ἀγών agon n. + -ία -y suffix.’
- 8.
The contemporary situation of French aristocracy can be interpreted as an example of a group that was devitalised but not entirely dissolved by the struggles waged against the social forms of monarchy. Through these struggles, the French aristocrats lost their monopoly over political decisions, their exemption from paying taxes, their exclusive right to possess land and so on. Their group was forced to cling to those few distinctive traits (social forms) that survived the revolution: their property rights over the château, their good manners and command of the French language, and the glamour they still inspire in narrow sections of the population (eg. readers of ‘Almanac de Gotha’ magazines).
- 9.
These are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, in many cases they could be seen as complementary.
- 10.
Institutional theory has provided extensive literature on this matter. Unfortunately, their insights typically privilege equilibrium over social conflict. Moreover, they downplay actors’ agency by attributing transformative agency exclusively to ‘institutional entrepreneurs’.
- 11.
One thinks, for instance, of J-L Borges’s bold proposition that it is impossible to translate a poem.
- 12.
One thinks for instance of the 1981 traffic controllers strike that was declared illegal by President Reagan thus paving the way to further attacks on unions’ basic rights (Mc Cartin 2011).
- 13.
It may be conjectured that the investment in and development of corporate culture in the 1980s and the ensuing glamorization of such values as ‘autonomy’ has contributed to eroding the moral satisfaction and prestige associated with collective action. See for instance Willmott (1993).
- 14.
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Al-Amoudi, I., Latsis, J. (2015). Death Contested: Morphonecrosis and Conflicts of Interpretation. In: Archer, M. (eds) Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order. Social Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13773-5_11
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