Spencer is dead, long live Spencer: individualism, holism, and the problemof norms

The debate between the advocates of sociological individualism and those of holism has been pervasive in the development of social theory. This debate is often situated in the false problems of sociology, since it is seen as a particular form of the perennial and irresolvable dilemma between social nominalism and realism, as well as between freedom and determinism. Neverth eless,the debate is far from over within contemporary sociology and other s ocial science, as indicated by the resurgence of individualism in rational action theory and its repudiation by holistic social theories. The aim of t his paper is to identify some modern variations on this theme as well as to discern certain common tendencies of two seemingly opposite theoretical pe rspectives, viz. the convergence upon a normative solution to the problem o f social order. This convergence is therefore denoted normative convergence between sociological individualism and holistic sociology.