Much of our social environment is “socially constructed.” Our lives are structured by institutions, rules, and norms. We participate in and interact with organizations and corporate entities, from firms and banks to schools, universities, and churches. Our economic activities rely on private property, money, contracts, and other financial and institutional constructs. And society couldn’t function without decision-making procedures and a legal system. Andrei Marmor presents an account of the ontological foundations of this “institutional reality.” He aims to account for institutional facts in a way that is compatible with methodological individualism: the view that social phenomena should be explained by reference to facts about individuals and their interactions. His book builds on two precursors: H. L. A. Hart’s The Concept of Law and John Searle’s The Construction of Social Reality. Marmor goes beyond Hart by (among other things) investigating social reality in general and not just the law, and...

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