Human Beings and Collectivities. The Problem of the “Level of Analysis” in Sociology

Abstract

In the controversies over “what is primitive”, the group or the individual, and over how social groups exist, references has sometimes been made to concepts and standpoints drawn from philosophy. It was believed that we have to do with an analogy to, or a variety of, the controversy over universals. The controversy over the way of existence of social reality was identified with, or made similar to, the controversy over whether linguistic facts have their extralinguistic analogues, and if it is so, what those analogues are.