Social Science Information

ISSNs: 0539-0184, 1461-7412

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  1. The Illusion of Meritocracy.Tong Zhang - 2024 - Social Science Information 63 (1):114-128.
    Meritocracy claims to reward the meritorious with more resources, thereby achieving social efficiency and justice in a level playground. This article argues that the rise of meritocracy in a society is the institutional consequence of adopting progressive humanism, an ideal-type worldview that advocates the harmonious co-realization of individual achievement and social contribution. However, meritocracy is a self-defeating illusion because, even in a level playground, it only rewards conspicuous and wasteful display of ‘merit’ rather than genuine contributions to society. Similar to (...)
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  2. Methodological Individualism and Agent-based Computational Simulation: A Reply to Kincaid and Zahle.Francesco Di Iorio - 2024 - Social Science Information.
    This study reflects on Harold Kincaid and Jule Zahle’s view that there is no necessary association between methodological individualism and agent-based models because the analysis of social phenomena in terms of the latter cannot always be regarded as an implementation of the former. Their view remains in contention with the standpoint of several philosophers of science and social scientists, including Chen and Di Iorio. Kincaid and Zahle’s main argument against such a standpoint is that agent-based simulation is compatible with holistic (...)
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