Are There Social Objects?

Abstract

The fundamental unit of analysis in social ontology is not social objects but Social Facts, specifically Institutional Facts. In spite of the incredible variety of human civilization, all of the specific features of human institutional life are created by a single operation repeated over and over (representations that have the logical form of) the Status Function Declarations. Such representations create institutional reality by declaring Institutional Facts to exist. All Institutional Facts are Status Functions. Status Functions create Deontic Powers, and Deontic Powers provide desire-independent reasons for action. A consequence of this analysis is that the basic unit of social ontology is not the social object but the Institutional Fact. Because Institutional Facts have a propositional structure, they and their representations can function in human rationality in a way that objects cannot. Am I a social object? The question lacks a clear sense. But if you consider such facts as that I am a professor, a citizen of the United States, a property owner, and a licensed driver, all of these are constitutive of institutional reality, and they are all matters of Deontic Power relationships.