ABSTRACT
I understand ‘positivist social science’, broadly, as social science based on a belief in the fundamental similarity between the social and the natural sciences, as these are depicted by positivist and empiricist philosophers. My use of this term is motivated solely by convenience – more specifically, my need for a rubric – and does not at all reflect any wish, on my part, to label social scientists ‘positivists’, or to say anything essential about positivist social science. My only interest is to find manifestations of methodological individualism within this important research tradition in social science.
