Social Inconsistency

Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 9 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Though the social world is real and objective, the way that social facts arise out of other facts is in an important way shaped by human thought, talk and behaviour. Building on recent work in social ontology, I describe a mechanism whereby this distinctive malleability of social facts, combined with the possibility of basic human error, makes it possible for a consistent physical reality to ground an inconsistent social reality. I explore various ways of resisting the prima facie case for social inconsistency. I conclude, however, that the prima facie case survives scrutiny, and draw out some of the ramifications.

Author's Profile

Thomas Brouwer
University of Leeds

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-04-21

Downloads
607 (#23,728)

6 months
132 (#21,748)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?