Talcott Parsons (A brief analysis on his theory) (original) (raw)
Talcott Parsons, the Theory of Social Action and the Theory of Rational Choice
Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii" Alexandru Ioan …, 2010
The ancient debate about the role of action theory in foundation of the rational choice theory is current. Many sociologists continue to compare these two theories with a lot of arguments. In fact we can conclude that the work of T. Parsons remain in the core of sociological thinking even if another theories are now actual or the critics are numerous. In this article we present the main ideas of this important theoretical confrontation and we open possible ways of future debates.
Talcott Parsons' theory of action and systems
Századvég Publishing
Parsons' intellectual activity has been variously evaluated. His critics have found fault with the vagueness of his formulations, which makes the intellectual content of his works comprehensible only after repeated readings; they have been no less averse to the abstractness of his thought; and finally, most evaluations have been marked by a distaste for the conservatism of socio-political equilibrium implied by his works. It is with regard to the latter that most of his critics can be found among politically left-leaning Western social scientists. Yet here, too, there have been polar opposite views in evaluating Parsons' achievements. There is probably no more negative assessment than that of Wright Mills in his 1959 book on Parsons' "grand theory," of which he wrote: "(....) 50 percent word multiplication, 40 percent sociological platitude. The other ten percent can be studied empirically. (Mills, 1970:291). As far as possible from this pithy opinion is the no less respected and no less left-wing Jürgen Habermas of 1981: in his view, a social theory at the end of the 20th century cannot be taken seriously if its creator has not seriously engaged with Parsons' theory. (Habermas, 1981/II. 296.) This latter view is also more in line with Alvin W. Gouldner's statement in 1971: "If we want to understand the bourgeois theoretical thought of our time, we must focus primarily on the works of Talcott Parsons, because it is this work that has had the most far-reaching impact in recent decades. (Gouldner, 1971:168.) In the domestic sociological literature in Hungary, there has long been an aversion to the work of Parsons, and only in recent years has there been a more intensive study of his theoretical work. A deeper understanding of Parsons' work is probably complicated by the conceptual difficulty of his work, but perhaps even more so by the dense modifications of Parsons' use of concepts in his successive works. Indeed, Parsons rebuilt his conceptual apparatus several times (sometimes every two or three years) over the course of his fifty years of theoretical work. His first synthesis, The Structure of Social Action, was published in 1937 after ten years of preliminary partial studies. For a long time thereafter he published only studies, and in 1951 he further expanded his original conceptual apparatus in two volumes. The subject of Toward a General Theory of Action, co-authored with his former student Edward Shils, is still related to the first volume, while his second volume, The Social System, written independently, marks the beginning of Parsons' turn toward systems theory. He then turns briefly to the family and socialization, and in this context he refreshes his conceptual stock with the category of another former student, Robert Bales (this is the subject of their 1953 volume Working Papers in the Theory of Action, co-authored with Shils and Bales). He approaches macroeconomic problems with the conceptual apparatus he had developed in previous years, but the problems here and his study of recent economic theories, especially Keynes's monetary theory, cause him to change his conceptual tools. Their 1956 volume, Economy and Society, co-authored with Neil Smelser, is the result of this work. After several revisions, Parsons' conceptual apparatus is by this time largely fixed, or at least there are only changes in terms of one category compared to the radical changes made earlier. This conceptual "cooling off" is evident in Theories of Society, published in 1961 by a group of Parsons and his students, in which Parsons summarizes the basic categories of his social
[Doctoral Thesis] - In Search of a Theoretical Synthesis: Talcott Parsons and the Theory of Action
In Search of a Theoretical Synthesis: Talcott Parsons and the Theory of Action, 2022
The present thesis aims to provide a theoretical reconstruction of the theory of action, understood here as a kind of general frame of reference, but also as a research program in the human sciences. The problem of investigation here addressed is that of clarifying the extension and limits of such theory. The general argument of the thesis is that this intellectual tradition goes back further than Parsons immediately pointed out during his first tentative synthesis and that it can be traced back at least as far as to Kant’s critical philosophy; from the point of view of its developments, it extends forward into contemporary sociology, but it also finds limits there due to its primary focus on the instrumental-normative divide, thus demanding some further reformulations. In order to support this argument the present thesis is divided into four chapters: (1) the first one addresses the issue of metatheory in order to situate the procedures and the goals of the present reconstruction; (2) the second one deals with the intellectual origins of the theory of action, which covers the contributions coming from classical sociology, especially Durkheim and Weber, and its Neokantian frame of reference; (3) the third one reconstructs in further details the development of the first major synthesis in the theory of action, the so-called “voluntaristic” theory of action, as first proposed by Talcott Parsons; (4) the fourth and last chapter analyzes some developments in action theory and the challenges coming from recent debates that were carried out by authors like Alexander, Münch, Joas, and others.
The Sociological Review, 2006
eds), New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 2005, £36.97, 349pp. Action Theory: Methodological Studies Helmut Staubmann (ed.), Lit Verlag, Wien, 2006, €14.90, 228pp.
Action, system and norm in the action frame of reference: Talcott Parsons and his critics1
The Sociological Review, 1983
currently under way. It may be asked, however, in what respects the current critiques differ from their predecessors? The themes appear to be the same: his neglea of power (Burger 1977), his over-empiiasis on norms (Warner 1978), the break between the early voluntarisdc theory of action and the later structural-functionalist theory of systems (Bershady 1973), and his misinterpretations of the sociological tradition (Pbpe 1973; Cohen, Hazelrigg and Pbpe 1975; Pbpe, Cohen and Hazelrigg 1975; Camic 1979).