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Updated: Jan 20, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Being social, being socially constructed, and being fundamental relative to social reality
1Binghamton University, Binghamton, USA.
Abstract:
Although the properties of being social and of being socially constructed are indispensable to our understanding of social reality, social metaphysicians are unclear about how they're related. In this paper, I argue that whereas everything that's socially constructed is also social, not everything that's social is also socially constructed. In particular, I argue that something is what I call "fundamental relative to social reality," something that's social but not also socially constructed. I sketch an account of fundamentality relative to social reality, and argue that it both clarifies how the properties of being social and of being socially constructed are related, and captures their significance for our understanding of social reality per se.
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