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Talcott Parsons
Sign in to saveAmerican sociologist (1902 – 1979)
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who lived from 1902 to 1979 and became one of the most influential sociological theorists of the twentieth century. His work on how societies function and maintain order shaped the field of sociology and continues to be studied and debated by scholars today.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1902-12-13
- Died
- 1979-05-08
- Works
- 169
Top works
- Malinowski and the theory of social systems
- Order as a sociological problem
- Order and community in the international social system
- The theory of social and economic organization
- The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism
via Open Library + Wikidata
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- Santa Barbara
- Active from
- 1948-12-20
Discography
- Freudiana1990
- Freudiana1990
- Turn It Up1993
- Try Anything Once1993
- Wine from the Water1994
- So Far Away1996
- On Air1996
- The Time Machine (Dr. Evil Radio Mix)1999
- The Time Machine1999
- Excalibur2003
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 6
- Total plays
- 26
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/talcott+parsons">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
· 2012 · cited 6,796x
- WAF1, a potential mediator of p53 tumor suppression
· 1993 · cited 6,568x
- The<i>Gaia</i>mission
· 2016 · cited 6,413x
- Review of Particle Physics
· 2018 · cited 5,729x
- <i>IDH1</i>and<i>IDH2</i>Mutations in Gliomas
· 2009 · cited 5,129x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “As a formal analytical point of reference, primacy of orientation to the attainment of a specific goal is used as the defining characteristic of an organization which distinguishes it from other types of social systems.”
- “The functions of the family in a highly differentiated society are not to be interpreted as functions directly on behalf of the society, but on behalf of personality.”
- “'System' is the concept that refers both to a complex of interdependencies between parts, components, and processes, that involves discernible regularities of relationships, and to a similar type of interdependency between such a complex and its surrounding environment.”
- “In a sense the present work is to be regarded as a secondary-study of the work of a group of writers in the field of social theory. But the genus "secondary study" comprises several species; of these an example of only one, and that perhaps not the best known, is to be found in these pages.”
- “A theoretical system does not merely state facts which have been observed and that logically deducible relations to other facts which have also been observed. In so far as such a theory is empirically correct it will also tell us what empirical facts it should be possible to observe in a given set.”
- “The structure of a theoretical system tells us what alternatives are open in the possible answers to a given question. If observed facts of undoubted accuracy will not fit any of the alternatives it leaves open, the system itself is in need of reconstruction.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Family name
- Parsons
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Colorado Springs
- Place of death
- Munich
- Child
- Charles Parsons
- Occupation
- biologist
- Educated at
- Heidelberg University
- Employer
- Harvard University
- Political party
- Democratic Party (United States)
- Languages spoken
- German
- Native language
- English language
- Academic degree
- doctorate
- Student of
- Bronisław Malinowski
- Doctoral student
- Albert K. Cohen
- Field of work
- history
- Image
- TalcottParsons.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- date of birth
- 1902-12-13
- date of death
- 1979-05-08
- member of
- American Philosophical Society
- Commons gallery
- Talcott Parsons
- student
- Jeffrey C. Alexander
- writing language
- English language
- Commons category
- Talcott Parsons
- interested in
- sociology
- name in native language
- Talcott Parsons
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in sociology in the 20th century. After earning a PhD in economics, he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1973. In 1930, he was among the first professors in its new sociology department. Later, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard.
Based on empirical data, Parsons' social action theory was the first broad, systematic, and generalizable theory of social systems developed in the United States and Europe. Some of Parsons' largest contributions to sociology in the English-speaking world were his translations of Max Weber's work and his analyses of works by Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Vilfredo Pareto. Their work heavily influenced Parsons' view and was the foundation for his social action theory. Parsons viewed voluntaristic action through the lens of the cultural values and social structures that constrain choices and ultimately determine all social actions, as opposed to actions that are determined based on internal psychological processes. Although Parsons is generally considered a structural functionalist, towards the end of his career, in 1975, he published an article that stated that "functional" and "structural functionalist" were inappropriate ways to describe the character of his theory.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Talcott Parsons” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.