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School of Environment and Development, Sheffield Hallam University Urban and Regional Environment Programme - Level 2 Philosophies of Social Science WEEK 6 'Society' and 'Individuals' Rob Furbey ________________________________________________________________ 'There's no such thing as society. There are only individual men and women, and there are families'. Margaret Thatcher Introduction In a module that explores 'philosophies of social science' perhaps the most basic question of all is: * What is the nature of the social world that we are trying to explain? Of what does it consist? As explained in the early weeks of the Research Development module, we are dealing here with questions of ontology. Remember this definition: DEFINITION Ontology - 'the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of existence. Ontological assumptions are those assumptions that underpin theories about what kind of entities can exist' (Abercrombie et al., 1994, p.292). So, our ontology in social science relates to what we see as being 'there' as the focus of our study. Over the next two weeks, Paul...

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