Handlungsprinzipien oder Systemgesetze

The central problem of social theory is explaining the specific properties of social systems. Two general approaches or research programmes have been competing to find the solution to this problem. The first system represents a holistic view of social reality and therefore searches for irreducible laws of social systems. The second is based on a reductionistic point of view and thus aims at a reductive explanation of social life on the basis of laws or principles pertaining to individual behavior. In the last two decades, there has been a remarkable shift to reductionism in social theory. In his work, the author analyzes the tendency toward reductionism and shows how it resulted from the development of theoretical thinking which was initiated by the founders of modern social science in the 18th century.