In an election year, candidates, campaigns, political researchers and news organizations are all trying to figure out which groups of people are going to vote which way — and why.
Young voters. Black people. Women. The working class. Groups of people, identified as categories, defined by qualifiers like age, race, gender or class.
But how are social categories formed? What is the meaning of a social group? How do we make sense of our social world and interactions?
These are the questions asked by philosophers working in social ontology — a branch of philosophy in which scholars examine the nature of social phenomena, like social groups, social categories and other aspects of social reality, including social institutions. Social ontologists analyze fundamental concepts in social science and social theory — essentially, what is the meaning of social groups, social norms and social institutions?
With the recent hiring of two social ontologists — Kevin Richardson in 2021 and Ásta in 2022, who served together as co-chairs for the 2024 International Social Ontology Society’s Conference at Duke — Duke’s department of Philosophy has established itself as a new global hub in the field.
“Philosophy is a field that’s changing. There's a social turn happening, and the prominence of social ontology is a big part of that,” said Ásta, who is a professor of philosophy. “It’s really exciting what is happening in social ontology — it's getting transformed. We are now thinking about race and gender and all kinds of things in a way that we weren't before.”
“Questions of gender, race, sexual orientation and disability were once marginalized topics,” Richardson said. “They weren’t considered philosophically interesting, but there’s been a shift in attitude in recent decades. These topics are taken more seriously in mainstream philosophy now, which has led to a rise in social ontology.”
As a field of study, social ontology intersects with various disciplines, including: Economics, Gender and Sexuality Studies, African & African American Studies, Psychology, Sociology, English, Literature and Cultural Anthropology to name a few. Richardson and Ásta are interested in forming research relationships and interdisciplinary bonds with other Duke faculty across disciplines.
Though empirical work is not usually part of the philosophy purview, Duke Philosophy has a long history of interdisciplinary and empirically engaged research, and philosophers do think about causal questions and what kind of methods make sense for different types of questions. “Some of the various theories that we engage in and come up with can be tested,” Ásta said. “There is a continuity between the kind of abstract work we do and empirical work.”
Richardson, who is an assistant professor of philosophy, agrees that there is overlap with social ontology and areas of empirical science, noting the current “vigorous public debate about what it is to be a woman.”
“What is the definition of womanhood?” Richardson asked. “As social ontologists, we're interested in that question — and we’re also interested in the definition that results from that question. Our work is informed by empirical evidence, but it's not our primary method.”
In additional to social groups, Richardson and Ásta’s examination of various aspects of social reality extends to institutions as well. This includes entities formed intentionally — people coming together and creating a corporation or a running club, for example — but it also includes unintentional formations. “No one wants a recession, right? But recessions are social entities. They are a result of the activity of people,” Ásta said. “It all connects.”
Department of Philosophy