A brief teaching note on social ontology

A brief teaching note on social ontology (information from perplexity.ai)

My question: "Highlight 6 main ideas of social ontology and then, discuss briefly on the following research philosophies view the topic of social ontology: positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism and critical realism."

The reply: "Understanding Social Ontology and Its Research Philosophies

Six Main Ideas of Social Ontology

1. Nature of Social Reality: Social ontology studies what constitutes the social world, focusing on entities like institutions, groups, and social facts.

2. Social Construction: Many social phenomena are constructed through interactions and collective intentionality (people agreeing or acting together).

3. Collective Intentionality: The idea that social realities depend on shared beliefs and intentions, not just individual perceptions.

4. Status Functions: Social objects and facts often have assigned roles or statuses, like money or property rights, that exist because society agrees on them.

5. Layered Reality: Social reality is layered, composed of individual behaviors and macro social structures that influence each other.

6. Ontology and Epistemology Link: Understanding social ontology involves seeing how social realities are known, studied, and interpreted.

Research Philosophies and Social Ontology

Positivism

• Assumes realist ontology: social reality exists objectively and independently of human perceptions.

• Believes in uncovering universal laws governing social phenomena through observation and measurement.

Interpretivism

• Adopts a constructivist ontology: social reality is subjective, constructed through human interpretation and shared meanings.

• Emphasis is placed on understanding the lived experiences and meanings that individuals assign within social contexts.

Pragmatism

• Takes a practical stance on ontology: focuses on concepts and social realities based on their usefulness and outcomes.

• Views social ontology flexibly, emphasizing problem-solving and the dynamic creation of social reality by human actions.

Critical Realism

• Holds that social reality exists independently but is deep and stratified with underlying mechanisms.

• Recognizes human knowledge as fallible but aims to uncover causal mechanisms behind social phenomena."

A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.