The Socio-Ontology of What There is

Abstract Ontology refers both to the study of, and the answer to, the question of what there is, and there is agreement that this issue is important in the social sciences. This article argues that the main step towards a social science–relevant ontology is taken by phenomenology. Phenomenology puts human beings at the center of ontology. This article proposes a single unified ontology that is centered on the human being, is irreducibly social, and encompasses both human beings and things. First, it argues that human beings are ontologically social and shows what this means in contrast to being epistemically social. Second, as an example of the analysis, it shows that institutions and human beings constitute one another. Third, it contends that social science theories make not ontological but ontic or epistemic claims. Together, these contributions reframe ontology as a human-centered social project while clarifying the scope and limits of social scientific theorizing.