Social Matter: An Ontology for the Social Sciences [Hardcover]

This book helps answer a fundamental question: What is the social world made of? It presents a comprehensive ontology of social entities, activities, and relations. Basic building blocks of the social world, from humans and animals to objects and cognitive entities are explored, while also posing open questions about the status of living beings. By introducing more complex social forms, such as networks and collectives, and examining how these emerge through shared resources and interactions the author applies the familiar social science notions like classes and organizations and explores life courses and causality within social phenomena. As a whole, this book offers an innovative framework for understanding the social world, inviting scholars and readers in philosophy, social sciences, and political sciences to rethink the entities and processes that shape our social reality.

Acknowledgments.- Preamble.- Chapter 1. In search of a robust ontology.- Chapter 2. Entities.- Chapter 3. Activities and processes.- Chapter 4. Relations.- Chapter 5. Compound forms: collectives, spheres of activity, institutions, networks.- Chapter 6. Diversity of collectives.- Chapter 7. Generality, causalities, mechanisms.- Chapter 8. The emergence of collectives and spheres of activity.- Chapter 9. Space, time, societies.- Chapter 10. Social Matter Matters.- Index.

“It comprises ten chapters each with its own abstract and final summary along with some ten to twenty references for the most part to the literature in English. ... It is not a difficult read. It is eminently suitable for students on master’s courses or embarking on a PhD in sociology because the various components of the ontology are given straightforward definitions and are illustrated by plentiful examples.” (Système d'information en philosophie des sciences, SIPS, January 13, 2026)

Michel Grossetti