ABSTRACT
One of the central problems of the methodology of the social sciences is to avoid a reduction of social scientific explanations either to (1) descriptions of institutions, which fail to take the actions of individuals into account, or to (2) chronicles of the actions of individuals, which fail to take the influence of institutions into account. The challenge is to explain the different but interlocking roles of individuals and of institutions in shaping events. On the view proposed here institutions are above all established intellectual structures. These structures impose conditions on attempts to solve problems. But only individuals have aims and determine which problems are to be solved. In order to look at how the proposal made here meets the challenge to take account of the role of institutions while maintaining an individualist perspective we may (1) look at the need individuals have for institutionalized problem structures. From this point of view (2) institutions are real even though their properties depend in part on the decisions of individuals as they pose problems, and (3) when we construct social scientific explanations we can loosen the dependence on the analysis of individual belief without sacrificing individualism. Why individuals need institutional problem structures Individuals require institutional problem structures, because they cannot possess adequate techniques for problem-solving without the orientation institutional problem structures offer. Individuals need both a theoretical framework and techniques for attacking any problem. They cannot create either the frameworks or the techniques for solving problems out of whole cloth in each new situation. They not only lack the intellectual power to do so. All frameworks and techniques are experimental. They need to be steadily tried out and improved. Yet, if techniques are to be useful and effective, they must also be prima facie applicable to many situations without the need for reappraisal prior to their use. There is and can be no substitute for such institutional orientation in world-views or plans, because no individual can regularly think and act with global considerations in mind. As a consequence, when individuals pose and seek to solve problems, they have no alternative to relying on institutional contexts to a high degree.
