For "Central Conflation" – A Critique of Archerian Dualism

: A Critique of Archerian Dualism

: Piiroinen Tero

: 2014

: Sociological Theory

: 32

: 2

: 79

: 99

: 21

: 0735-2751

: 1467-9558

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275114537632

Taking a side in the debate over ontological emergentism in social theory, this article defends an outlook that Margaret S. Archer has dubbed “central conflation”: an antidualistic position appreciating the interdependency of agency and structure, individuals and society. This has been a popular outlook in recent years, advocated broadly by such theorists as Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins, and Anthony Giddens. However, antidualism has been challenged by those who believe the key to success in social science lies in level-ontological emergentism. Archer’s own morphogenetic theory is an explicitly dualist version of that approach. I answer Archer’s arguments for emergentism, in so doing clearing a path for the even fuller acceptance of antidualism by theorists.