Chapter 4: The Hidden Assumptions of Variable-Based Social Science

Talk of variables and the quest for causal relationships characterizes much of modern science. This is also the case in the social sciences, where variables are presented as instruments for identifying central characteristics of individuals. But what are the underlying assumptions employed to describe human beings and their social worlds by way of variables? I argue that methodological individualism and the study of closed systems are central assumptions associated with a variable-based approach to social science. These are foundational ontological and epistemological questions, and I critique the variable-based approach to human beings and their social worlds by emphasizing the relational character of human existence, and the openness of the systems involving human beings. I do so by way of select examples of alternative approaches to social science. I present Bhaskar’s critical realism, Koestler’s concept of the holon and Arne Næss’s relational total-field image ontology to show how different approaches to the human social world enable us to understand ourselves and our existence in ways obscured by the variable-based approach.