The social thought of talcott parsons

The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Methodology and American Ethos Uta Gerhardt The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Rethinking Classical Sociology Series Editor: David Chalcraft, University of Derby, UK This series is designed to capture, reflect and promote the major changes that are occurring in the burgeoning field of classical sociology The series publishes monographs, texts and reference volumes that critically engage with the established figures in classical sociology as well as encouraging examination of thinkers and texts from within the ever-widening canon of classical sociology Engagement derives from theoretical and substantive advances within sociology and involves critical dialogue between contemporary and classical positions The series reflects new interests and concerns including feminist perspectives, linguistic and cultural turns, the history of the discipline, the biographical and cultural milieux of texts, authors and interpreters, and the interfaces between the sociological imagination and other discourses including science, anthropology, history, theology and literature The series offers fresh readings and insights that will ensure the continued relevance of the classical sociological imagination in contemporary work and maintain the highest standards of scholarship and enquiry in this developing area of research Also in the series: Transatlantic Voyages and Sociology The Migration and Development of Ideas Cherry Schrecker ISBN 978-0-7546-7617-1 Critical Social Theory and the End of Work Edward Granter ISBN 978-0-7546-7697-3 Ritual and the Sacred A Neo-Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self Massimo Rosati ISBN 978-0-7546-7640-9 For more information on this series, please visit www.ashgate.com The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Methodology and American Ethos Uta Gerhardt University of Heidelberg, Germany © Uta Gerhardt 2011 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher Uta Gerhardt has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Burlington Farnham Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Gerhardt, Uta, 1938The social thought of Talcott Parsons : methodology and American ethos (Rethinking classical sociology) Parsons, Talcott, 1902-1979 Sociology I Title II Series 301'.092-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gerhardt, Uta, 1938The social thought of Talcott Parsons : methodology and American ethos / by Uta Gerhardt p cm (Rethinking classical sociology) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-4094-2767-4 (hbk) ISBN 978-1-4094-2768-1 (ebook) Parsons, Talcott, 1902-1979 Sociology United States History Sociology United States Methodology I Title HM477.U6P374 2011 301.092 dc23 2011017895 ISBN 9781409427674 (hbk) ISBN 9781409427681 (ebk) V Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Contents Prefaceâ•… â•… vii PART Iâ•… Themes Positioning the Parsons Projectâ•…â•… PART IIâ•… Tenets A Product of Modern European Civilization: Translating into English Max Weber’s Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismusâ•… â•… 57 A Charter for Modern Sociology: The Social System and the Ethos of American Democracyâ•…â•… 93 PART IIIâ•… Dialogs Encounters with the Frankfurt School: A Story of Exile, Estrangement, and Epistemologyâ•…â•… 145 Beyond Sociological Imagination: The Controversy with C Wright Mills over Power and Knowledge â•…â•… 191 “… will not down:” The Clash with Utilitarianism in the Name of the American Societal Communityâ•…â•… 237 Part IVâ•… Positions The Parsons Project Today: Social Thought for the Twenty-first Century â•…â•… Epilogueâ•… â•… Bibliographyâ•… â•… Name Indexâ•… â•… Subject Indexâ•… â•… 291 393 399 431 435 Democracy wishes to raise up mankind, to give it freedom; and its greatest strength lies in its deep spiritual and moral self-consciousness Thomas Mann “I am an American” (1940) Preface The Disobedient Generation,1 a collection of autobiographical accounts of American, British, French, German, and Italian sociologists, documenting how some dismissed their intellectual mentors in the 1960s, makes Parsons a bygone thinker of yesteryear In that fateful-cum-fruitful decade, says Jeffrey Alexander, “Talcott Parsons saw the other side of the pattern variables, and the strain modernity placed on men, but believed that balance could be preserved by hearth and home.”2 John Hall remembers how in these formative years, “the spirit of the time and a background in history made me critical of the consensual theories of Talcott Parsons,”3 when he himself, he recollects, was “much concerned with forces of social change.” It seems odd that Parsons, arguably the greatest English-speaking sociologist of the twentieth century, should have been disowned by his students among The Disobedient Generation, considering that he himself, Parsons, the doyen of the discipline in the 1950s, had rebelled against the sociology well established in the United States only decades earlier His foremost achievement as a young scholar, as has been maintained elsewhere and will be argued again in this book, was that he rejected Social Darwinism which was the dominant creed well into the 1930s.4 Indeed, he used a quote from Crane Brinton’s English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century5 dismissing the theory of Herbert Spencer, then a towering authority in social science in America, in the very first passage of The Structure of Social Action:6 “Who now reads Spencer? … His God has betrayed him We have evolved beyond Spencer.”7 1â•… Alan Sica and Stephen Turner (eds) (2005), The Disobedient Generation: Social Theorists in the Sixties (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press) 2â•… Jeffrey C Alexander (2005b), “The Sixties and Me: From Cultural Revolution to Cultural Theory,” in Sica and Turner (eds), The Disobedient Generation, 37–47, p 38 3â•… John A Hall (2005), “Life in the Cold,” in Sica and Turner (eds), The Disobedient Generation, 129–40, p 134; the next quote is from the same page 4â•… Uta Gerhardt (2002), Talcott Parsons: An Intellectual Biography (New York: Cambridge University Press), Chapter 1: “Understanding The Structure of Social Action” discusses “The Long Shadow of Darwinism,” 22–32 5â•… Crane Brinton (1933), English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century (London: Benn) 6â•… Talcott Parsons (1968), The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory With Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers (New York: McGraw Hill 1937; 3rd edition, New York: The Free Press) 7â•… Ibid., viii The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Little did the believers in human diversity and social change among the contributors to The Disobedient Generation realize that Parsons in the 1960s was neither a conservative, nor did he deny the forces of social change On the contrary, his pledge for America meant that he advocated, for one, “full citizenship” for Black Americans.8 This should have convinced his students of yesteryear, instead of giving them cause for distancing themselves from his groundbreaking work In other words, the vision of the social thought of Parsons that the sociological canon entertains, needs revision and repair urgently The folklore that he promoted outdated structural-functionalism, nothing else, should be abandoned My book makes one determined effort to set the record straight Parsons, I argue, was a classic whose work followed Max Weber, the doyen of the twentieth century The 17 books (including seven volumes of collected essays) and nearly 200 scholarly articles that he published in his lifetime, were all meant to follow in the footsteps of Weber, the giant on whose shoulders he stood In my view, Parsons set an agenda for sociology, applying as he did the conceptual approach of Weber, suitably amended by the philosophy of Alfred N Whitehead, an eyeopener for our discipline until today No mere exegesis of Weber’s writings was on his mind, but he used the social thought of Weber together with work of American as well as British scholars, among them George Herbert Mead and John Maynard Keynes, to mention but two, to set up a panorama of modern industrial society in its undeniable humanity It seems vital to understand this intellectual project In regard of Weber, this book puts Parsons’s first major opus, The Structure of Social Action, in line with his translation into English, published in 1930, of Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.9 The analytical focus of his world-famous The Social System, published in 1951, is also Weberian And Weber is still on his mind in the 1960s—now supplemented by the other towering classic, Émile Durkheim10—right until his last, unfinished, book manuscript of the 1970s, The American Societal Community (published recently under the title of American Society).11 One vantage point of both Parsons and Weber, which this book dwells on, is that methodology, the use of heuristic constructs in conceptual schemes, is the guarantor of systematic social science That is to say, Weber as well as Parsons 8â•… Parsons, “Full Citizenship for the Negro American? A Sociological View,” Daedalus, vol 94, 1965, 1009–54; see also Chapters and below 9â•… Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by Talcott Parsons (1930) (London: Allen and Unwin, New York: Scribner’s Sons); see also Chapter€2 below 10â•… See especially: Émile Durkheim, La division du travail social (originally, 1893), 2nd Edition, 1902 (Paris: Félix Alcan); translated 1933: Émile Durkheim on the Division of Labor in Society, being a translation of his De la division du travail social (New York: The Macmillan Company) 11â•… Talcott Parsons (2007), American Society: A Theory on the American Societal Community, edited and with an introduction by Guiseppe Sciortino (Boulder, CO: Paradigm) Preface ix opposed positivism that had been established originally in the theories of, notably Spencer in the 19th century who emulated Charles Darwin First in his Dr phil dissertation on the theory of capitalism of Weber, Parsons realized how important methodological grounding is for concept formation, the endeavor that was first introduced into modern sociology in Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money (first published in 1900).12 Parsons honored the European tradition, if only in the subtitle of The Structure of Social Action, namely A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers Weber’s principles of “Objektivität” and “Wertfreiheit,” the hub of Weberian Wissenschaftslehre,13 became a must for Parsons’s social thought, suitably adapted to the American philosophical tradition “Objectivity,” for Weber, meant that conceptual schemes are neither realist nor idealist, but explanation hinges on analytical schemes.14 “Value freedom,” for Weber, meant that no ideology should interfere with sociological thought: When his friend Robert Michels joined syndicalism in Italy and soon became a follower of Mussolini, Weber discontinued their relationship (he could not tolerate such “ethics of conviction,” even in a friend), and Marxism was another credo that had nothing to with scientific thought.15 Parsons followed Weber on both these counts The modern sociology that he explicated, from The Structure of Social Action to The American Societal Community, followed the methodological program of Weber How much the conceptual frame of reference matters in modern sociology, this book documents in extensive detail Nevertheless, I should add, both Weber and Parsons when they opposed weltanschauung in social thought, felt inclined, even urged, to have a standpoint and take sides in the political debates of the day Parsons, as it happened, became an ardent enemy of Nazism as he joined the Harvard Defense Group in the 1940s, opposed McCarthyism in the 1950s, and in 1968, as President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, helped Russian dissident Andrej Sacharov to publish a sensational peace plan in the New York Times, to mention but some of Parsons’s politics—though all his life he was as loath as Weber had been to compromise his scholarship 12â•… Georg Simmel (1900), Philosophie des Geldes (Munich and Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot; 2nd Edition, 1907) Translated, 2004: The Philosophy of Money, by Tom Bottomore and Davis Frisby from a first draft by Kaethe Mengelberg (London: Routledge) 13â•… Max Weber (1922b), Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre, edited by Johannes Winckelmann (Tübingen: J.C.B Mohr; 3rd edition, 1968) A partial translation of rather doubtful quality is: The Methodology of the Social Sciences – Max Weber (1949), translated and edited by Edward A Shils and Henry A Finch, with a foreword by Edward A Shils (New York: The Free Press) 14â•…Max Weber (1904), “Die ‘Objektivität’ sozialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis,” in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre, 3rd Edition, 146–214 15â•… Max Weber (1917a), “Der Sinn der ‘Wertfreiheit’ der soziologischen und ökonomischen Wissenschaften,” in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre, 489–540 430 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Wirth, Louis (1932), “The Scope and Problems of the Community,” in Sociological Problems and Methods: Papers presented at the Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Society (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press), 61–73 Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1923), Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (London: Kegan Paul), originally in German, 1921; republished with an introduction by Bertrand Russell (New York: Routledge, 1994) Woodward, C Vann (1974), The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Revised 3rd Edition (New York: Oxford University Press) Wright, Erik Olin (1985), Classes (London: Verso) — (1997), Class Counts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Wrong, Dennis H (1961), “The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology,” American Sociological Review 26, 183–93 — (1996), “Truth, Misinterpretation, or Left-wing McCarthyism?,” Sociological Forum 11, 613–22 — (2007), The Persistence of the Particular (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books) Zeitlin, Irving M (1973), Rethinking Sociology: A Critique of Contemporary Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall) Name Index Abel, Theodore 62, 81–2, 94 Acheson, Dean 230 Ackerman, Nathan 164, 166 Adorno, Theodor W 145, 147, 148, 154, 155n, 157, 159, 160, 161–2n, 162, 169–72, 182, 293, 354 Akula, John 312 Albrow, Martin 360 Alexander, Jeffrey vii, 3–4, 44, 238n, 295, 340–51 Allen, Woody 346 Allport, Gordon 146, 159, 162 Aron, Raymond 177 Ayres, Clarence 58 Bales, Robert F 127–131, 132, 151n, 249, 325n Barber, Bernard xii, 238, 287 Bauer, Raymond 253, 306n Bauman, Zygmunt 354 Beck, Ulrich 318, 363–4, 376, 377 Beck-Gernsheim, Elisabeth 363–4, 376, 377 Becker, Gary xi, 43, 239, 240, 260–61, 268, 284 Beeghley, Leonard 29n, 41, Bell, Daniel 280n Bellah, Robert 266, 312 Bendix, Reinhard 64, 174, 177, 180, 199n, 319n, 328n Bergstraesser, Arnold 66, 71–3 Bettelheim, Bruno 146 Bibring, Edward 159 Bibring, Grete 120n, 164 Bierstedt, Robert 39–40 Blalock, Hubert M 340n Blau, Peter 248, 255, 317 Bloom, Allan 47–49 Blossfeld, Peter 339–40 Boudon, Raymond 332n Breen, Richard 339 Brick, Howard 32, 58–9, 66, 96–7, 141–2, 237–8n, 239–40 Brickner, Richard 94n, 158, 165n Brinton, Crane vii, 26 Bruner, Jerome 151n Bruun, Henrik H 22n Burke, Kenneth 250–51 Bush, George W 359, 386 Bush, Vannevar 103 Burgess, Ernest W 78, 292 Calhoun, Craig 6, 38n, 93n, 147, 191, 230, 291n, 292n, 393n Camic, Charles 57–59, 292 Cannon, Walter B 41, 99, 101, 220 Clark, Kenneth B 258n, 350n Clinton, William J 385 Cohen, Jere 40n, Coleman, James 240, 253–4, 255, 268, 306n Collins, Patricia Hill 291n Collins, Randall 65 Comte, Auguste 7, 13–14 Conant, James B 104–5, 140 Cooley, Charles Horton 63 Coser, Lewis A 90, 145–6, 223, 228 Darwin, Charles ix, 9, 15, 78, Davis, Kingsley 39n, 328n Deutsch, Karl 215-7, 220, 255 Devereux, George 39n, 151n Dewey, John 149 de Bie, Pierre 175 de Maistre, Joseph-Marie 14 Dilthey, Wilhelm 11–14, 16n, 22, 52, 147, 187 Dollard, John 159–60 Downs, Anthony 254, 259, 358 432 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Dumont, Louis 258 Duncan, Otis Dudley 317 Dunlop, John T 285 Durkheim, Émile viii, x, 28, 40, 63, 110, 163n, 167, 168, 188–90, 275, 276, 278, 296, 308, 311n, 322, 323n, 332, 373 Easton, David 210n Einstein, Albert 35n Eisenhower, Dwight D 195n, 346n Elder, Glen 320 Elster, Jon 332n Erikson, Robert 331n, 333–5 Faris, Ellsworth 93–5 Ferree, Myra Marx 291n Festinger, Leon 247n Flowerman, Leo 160 Franklin, Benjamin 68, 71, 85 Freidson, Eliot 261 Frenkel-Brunswik, Else 161 Freud, Anna 131–2n, 163 Freud, Sigmund 63, 121, 147, 163, 164, 167, 168, 280, 395 Freyer, Hans 91 Friedrich, Carl J 210, 257 Fuller, Lon 342 Garfinkel, Harold 4n, 146 Geithner, Timothy 386 Gerhardt, Uta 16n, 32n, 38n, 114n, 198n, 240n, 269n, 270n, 293n, 303n, 308n, 342n, 348n Gerstein, Dean R 270n Gerth, Hans 63, 196n, Giddens, Anthony 43, 64n, 65, 364–6, 376, 377 Giddings, Franklin H 78 Glazer, Nathan 263n, 329n, 345n, 347n Goffman, Erving 4n, Goldthorpe, John 295, 320–21, 331–40 Gosh, Peter 60n, Gould, Mark 278 Gouldner, Alvin 4, 31n, 284 Graeber, Isaque 146, 157n, 348n Gross, Neil 191 Habermas, Jürgen 147, 148, 177, 178–9, 185, 286 Hall, John vii Hall, Peter 374 Halle, Louis J 291n-292n Hamilton, Peter 305, 306, 307 Harrington, Michael 267 Hartmann, Heinz 170–72 Hartshorne, Edward Y 39n, 90n, 150, 151n, 152 Hayden, Tom 230-2 Hazelrigg, Lawrence H 40n, Henderson, Arthur 107n Henderson, Lawrence 25, 30, 58, 83, 98–9, 224, 235, 272, 273, 275, 294, 295n, 298, 302, 305, 322, 369, 394–5 Henrich, Dieter 20n, Herring, Pendleton 105n Hinkle, Roscoe C 78 Homans, George C 31n, 42, 237–8, 241ff., 244–6, 246–9, 254–7, 272, 273, 284, 293, 314n Horkheimer, Max 145, 148, 154–5, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 181–2, 354 Huntington, Samuel 367 Hutchins, John Maynard 299-300 Jackson, Michelle 335–6 Jakobson, Roman 224n, 250 Jahoda, Marie 172 Jay, Martin 146 Jefferson, Thomas 380 John XXIII 313 Johnson, Alvin 90 Johnson Lyndon B x, 215n, 258n, 350n, 397n Kalberg, Stephen 60n, 65–6, 84–8 Kennedy, John F 214, 311, 312 Keynes, John Maynard viii, 241, 242–4, 387, 389 King, Martin Luther 345 Knight, Frank 60–61 Kluckhohn, Clyde 119, 159, 226n, 357 Kluckhohn, Florence 325n Name Index Kretschmer, Ernst 171 Kris, Ernst 164n Laslett, Barbara 291n Lasswell, 200n, 207n, 209, 210, 216n, Lazarsfeld, Paul F 51, 101, 146, 159, 191n, 192, 292 Lazarus, Richard 281 Leibfried, Stephan 377 Leisering, Lutz 377 Levine, Donald 18n, 19n, 149, 150, 313 Lickert, Rensis 159 Lidz, Victor 5n, 95–6, 97, 103n, 127, 278 Lipset, Seymour Martin 36n, 137–40, 199n, 229, 319n, 328n, 334–5, 381 Lockwood, David 337, 338n Löwe, Adolf [Lowe, Adolph] 99–100 Lowenthal, Leo 145 Luhmann, Niklas 146, 286 MacIver, Robert 146, 292 Mannheim, Karl 68 Marcuse, Herbert 33n, 145, 148, 154, 176, 180, 185–6 Marshall, Alfred 28 Marshall, Thomas Humphrey 39n, 262, 327 Martin, David 274 Martin, Gus 368 Martindale, Don 31n, 63, Marx, Karl 12, 67, 187, 315–7, 319, 324n, 327 Mayo, Elton 121n, 273n Mayer, Karl Ulrich 320n Mayntz, Renate 384n Mayr, Ernst 40, 41, 220, 311 Mead, George Herbert viii, 51–52, 63, 135, 147, 149, 167, 168, 266n, 394, 395 Meiklejohn, Alexander 58 Merton, Robert 30, 39n, 94, 95, 101–3, 145n, 146, 223n, 327 Michels, Robert ix Mill, John Stuart 11–14, 52, 433 Mills, C Wright xi, 6, 7, 63, 191ff., 194-8, 198-204, 208-9, 210, 221-223, 226, 228, 234, 293, 347, 393 Min, Brian 362 Mommsen, Wolfgang 173–4, 176, 177 Moore, Barrington Jr 185n, 193 Moore, Wilbert E 328n Moynihan, Daniel P 263n, 329n Münch, Richard 147 Myrdal, Gunnar 124n, 126, 318 Nelson, Benjamin 177, 180, 184–5 Neumann, Franz 145, 234 Nixon, Richard 270n, 314, 315, 384 Obama, Barack 352, 359, 386, 387, 391 Offe, Claus 317 Ogden, C K 72 Olds, George C 66n, 71 Olds, James 95, 279 Orwell, George 194, 222 Pareto, Vilfredo 28, 272–3, 275, 302, 322 Park, Robert E 78n Platt, Gerald M 228n, 229n, 232, 267n, 283–4 Platt, Jennifer 50n, 338n Pope, Whitney 40n Popper, Karl R 147n, Rawls, Anne xii Reissman, Leonard 197 Rheinstein, Max 63 Rickert, Heinrich 22–3, 84–5, 88, 187 Riesman, David 304–5 Riley, John W 105–7 Ringer, Fritz 88 Ritzer, George 366–7 Robertson, Hector Mentieth 76–7 Robinson, Joan 241n, 242, 244 Roosevelt, Franklin D 200n, 230, 384 Ross, Edward A 78 Rossi, Peter 197-8, 317n Rousseau, Jean Jacques 350 Roth, Guenther 177n Roth, Philip 346 434 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Sacharov, Andrej ix Salin, Edgar 71, 73–4 Sanford, R Nevitt 161 Sassen, Saskia 361 Schmitt, Carl 179, 186 Schneider, David 330 Schütz, Alfred 25, 146 Scaff, Lawrence 72n Scott, John Finley 41n, Shils, Edward 63, 88, 103, 107n, 128–9, 146, 172–3, 301n, 325n Shortwell, James T 146 Sica, Alan vi, 191 Siebeck, Oskar 74n Simmel, Ernst 160 Simmel, Georg ix, 14, 14–19, 25, 29, 30, 35, 52, 223n, 294, 308-309n, 355, 357 Skinner, Bhurrus F 246–7, 255, 256 Slawson, John 160, 162 Small, Albion 19n, Smelser, Neil J 44, 130n, 186, 229n, 239n, 244, 283n, 311n, 381, 384n Sombart, Werner 67 Sorokin, Pitirim 78–81, 226n, 298, 334, 393 Soros, George 385–6 Soskice, David 374 Spencer, Herbert vii, 6, 11–14, 15, 78, 238, 257, 298, 394 Spengler, Oswald 226, 378 Stammer, Otto 175–7 Steinmetz, George 147, 191, 237–8, 383 Stern, Fritz 35–6, 379 Stevenson, Adlai 200n Storer, Norman W 228 Stouffer, Samuel 135–7, 292, 325n Sumner, William Graham 78 Swedberg, Richard 244n, 384n Tawney, Richard 62 Tiedemann, Rolf 160n Toby, Jackson 5n, Tolman, Edward 279 Toqueville, Alexis de 381 Trevino, Javier 237 Turner, Jonathan 29n, 41, 331n Turner, Stephen vi, 191n Unwin, George 62n von Neumann, John 200n von Ranke, Leopold 16 von Schelting, Alexander 29n, 70, 107n, 146, von Wiese, Leopold 89 Wallerstein, Immanuel 32, 362 Warner, Lloyd 159, 317, 318, 326 Warren, Earl 318n Weber, Marianne x, 23, 72, 73 Weber, Max viii–xi, 19–25, 28, 30, 34–35, 52, 63, 67–71, 84–8, 107–110, 147, 157, 169, 173–5, 182–3, 186, 188–90, 205, 211, 220, 225, 280n, 286, 294, 296, 298, 319, 321, 322, 332, 357, 373, 378, 388, 393, 394–7 White, Winston 305, 306, 377 Whitehead, Alfred North viii, 25, 27, 29, 30, 41, 58, 61, 83, 140, 225n, 234–5, 238, 294, 298, 301, 357, 369, 394–5 Wiggershaus, Rolf 145 Willkie, Wendell 360n Wilson, William Julius 319 Wimmer, Andreas 362 Winckelmann, Johannes 175n Winch, Peter 49–50 Wirth, Louis 29, 62, Wolff, Kurt H 18n, 176 Wright, Erik Olin 317–8 Wrong, Dennis H 31, 32, 192-3, 331n Wyatt, Frederick 149 Zelizer, Viviana 286–7 Zetterberg, Hans 334–5 Subject Index Abstract theory, conceptual abstraction 42, 58, 165, 169, 225, 234, 357 Academic system 232, 313 Achievement–Ascription 117–8, 326–7, 352 Achievement–Ascription re race 329–30 Achievement 271, 275, 323, 324, 336 Achievement–Universalism, see: Universalism–Achievement Actor in his roles 102, 325, 326, 330 Affect, affective action orientation 120, 240, 272–6, 278, 281, 324, 396 Affect and institutions, citizenship 276–7, 282 Affect and university environment 283 Affectivity–Affective Neutrality 116, 119, 120 “Agenda of 1927” 58, 66 Aggression, pattern of 162, 353, 382 A–G–I–L scheme 98, 127–9, 149, 293, 302, 305 American society, democracy 35, 37, 46, 98, 135–9, 200, 204, 209, 211, 213, 218, 228, 231, 235, 338, 359 American capitalism, politics, culture 139, 200, 208, 233, 323, 326 American society—early work 300 American society—“middle phase” 304–5 American society—late oeuvre 315–6 American science, social science 60, 63, 124 American university, universities 233, 271, 376, 377 American ethos xi, 43, 49, 98, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123–6, 141, 230, 241, 267, 280, 300, 354, 369, 391; see also, Universalism–Achievement pattern American ethos and “value freedom” 395–8 American ethos—“middle phase” 303-4 American ethos—late oeuvre 311–4 An Economic Theory of Democracy 254, 259 Ancient Judaism 157 Anomie x, 27–8, 37, 43, 45, 110, 152n, 153, 203, 218, 240, 258, 278, 351, 369, 382, 387 Anomic society 33–4, 299 Anomic vs integrative pole of interaction media 217, 220 Anomie and integration 46, 51, 218, 219, 299, 374, 393 Anti-capitalism 96, 202 Anti-humanism 173 Anti-positivism 26, 84 Anti-Semitism 35–6, 125–7, 146, 150, 150–62, 348 Anti-utilitarianism 26, 96 Apartheid 281, 371–2, 373 Atom bomb 45, 103, 104, 124 Authority, legitimate 108, 114, 210, 324, 325, 376 Authority, coercive 219 Authority, rational-legal 211 Authoritarian regime, government 96, 205 Banking system, credit systems 213, 390 Banking-type interaction processes 213, 219, 388 Barter 218, 254, 388 Behaviourism 28, 246–9, 256 Bioethics 311 436 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Biology, biologism 79, 80, 171, 281 Blacks 39, 46, 126, 227, 262 267, 280, 281, 310, 315, 327, 329, 350, 352, 359, 372, 396, 397 Brave New World 169–173 Britain 242 Brown vs Board of Education 201, 265 Bureaucracy, bureaucratization 67, 204, 233, 313 Capitalism, capitalist society 67–71, 76, 96, 97, 155, 169, 170, 178, 194, 198–9, 206, 231, 238, 371, 374, 375 Capitalist mentality, ethic, spirit 67, 71, 74, 75–6, see also, Spirit Cathexis (of social objects) 120, 280 Charisma, charismatic regime, charismatic leadership 28, 114, 174, 211, 219, 389 Chicago approach to social stratification 317 Christianity 37, 275, 313 Christian values in secular society 315 Citizen, citizenship vii, 37, 38, 168, 180, 210, 227, 240, 258, 262, 267, 280, 284, 314, 327, 349, 350, 352, 355, 370, 372, 375, 396 Citizenship and social change 235 Civility, civil society 43, 44, 240, 258, 276–84, 280, 281, 284, 295, 352, 354, 380, 383, 396 Civil liberties 97, 201 Civil religion 266, 277, 280, 312, 316 Civil rights 210, 312, 327, 376 Civil Rights Movement x, 275, 315 Civil sphere 340–48 Class structure, class system 322, 324, see also, Social classes Classics 57, 374 Coercion 210, 282, 339, 349, 352, 396 Cognitive complex 284 Cold War 31–2, 44, 191, 204, 208, 231, 292-3n Collectivity, collectivities 33,122, 212, 213, 219, 262, 264, 279, 308, 314, 329, 349, 373, 380 Collectivity orientation 76, 119, 139 Collective effort 226 Collective evaluations 51 Collective functions of power 202 Collective sentiment 281 Collegiality, collegial organization 233, 266, 313 Commitment 49, 207, 217, 357; see also, Value-commitments Commitment banking 219, 277, 388–9 Communication media, communication 192, 217–21, 240, 379, 390 see also Interaction Communism, communist regimes 194, 207, 226, 231, 359 Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties 135–7 Communist bloc 206, 215, 277, 370 Communist revolution 208, 277 Community 47, 76, 213, 219, 228, 376, 396 Community spirit 314 Conceptual scheme, conceptual frame of reference, conceptual framework, conceptual model 27, 28, 45, 66, 95, 99, 165, 192, 235, 322, 338, 339, 340, 357, 369, 372, 374, 395, 396 Conceptual scheme—early work 296–8 Conceptual scheme—“middle phase” 302 Conceptual scheme—late oeuvre 306–8 Conflict 212, 223–8, 258, 310, 314 Conflict and cleavage 282, 304, 316, 371–3, 374 Conformity 274 Conformity vs coercion 122 Conscience collective 110, 308 Consensus 212, 228 Moral basis of consensus 219 Constitution 208, 263, 265, 311, 316, 326, 350 Constitutionalism 213 Contemporary crisis 45 Culture, cultural system(s) 118, 189, 217, 218, 230, 261, 274, 302, 303, 327, Subject Index 305, 358, 366–7, 373, 376, 379, 383 Cultural criticism, cultural pessimism 59, 202, 377, 379, 380, 381 Cultural systems and affect 276 Cultural knowledge 118 Cultural tradition of occidental civilization 233 Culture and the polity 218 Culture of freedom 265 Cybernetic controls, hierarchy of interaction media 215–21, 380, 391 Cybernetic thinking, information theory 381 Cybernetics 41, 215 Darwinism 28, 376 Natural selection 78 “struggle for existence” 8, 10, 79 “survival of the fittest” 8, 10, 264 Definition of the situation 207, 276, 382 Democracy, democratic society, democratic value-orientations 33, 34, 36, 39, 51, 97, 114, 119, 124, 168, 174, 194, 211, 218, 227, 240, 279, 281, 282, 299, 330–31, 355, 359, 372, 374, 376, 382, 396, 397 Democratic parties 373 Democratic side of affect 280 Democratic social life, social world 38, 167 Democratic spirit 124 Dynamics of media in democratic society 218 Dictatorship 33, 34, 36, 114, 205 Differentiation, social differentiation, differentiation of systems of society (economy, occupational system) 47, 198, 205, 218, 264, 277, 326, 352, 375, 389 Differentiation and de-differentiation 309, 373 Differentiation, pluralization, “upgrading” 277, 280, 316 Differential evaluation of membership 322 437 Differentiation, functional 211 Doctor-patient relationship 132, 165, 311 East-West divide 208 Economy 4, 231, 239, 258, 264, 279, 303, 305, 326, 354, 371, 387–8, 389 Economic modernization, productivity, prosperity 206, 371 Economy and service side of work 218 Economy as a social system 242 Economy, social aspects of Economy–polity–“society”–culture 218 Economics 35, 43, 66, 100, 239, 244, 249, 258, 387 “away from economics” 96, 141 Economism 240 “Economic ideology” 258–61, 293, 396 Economy and Society 38, 130, 244, 262, 303, 387 Education 8, 206, 210, 227, 228, 327, 328, 375 Educational revolution 284 Effectiveness in the polity 276 Ego 168 Emotions 281, see also, Affect, Sentiment Empirical analysis 58, 169, 306, 374 Empiricism 26–8, 234, 235, 374 Epistemology 49, 190, 286, 294 Equality 206, 240, 275, 310, 312, 316 Equality of access 388, 396 Equality of opportunity 33, 97, 120, 122, 210, 227, 240, 269, 275, 303, 323–4, 326, 328, 331, 355, 372, 399, 396 Equality through stratification 327 Patterns of equality 380 Equilibrium 100, 224, 228 Equilibrium–disequilibrium 373 Ethics 77, 123 Ethnicity 327, 329–30; see also, Blacks, Race Ethos of democracy 299, 395 438 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Ethos of the profession 134 Ethos of universalistic achievement 210 European Union 359 Explanation 12, 82, 156, 225, 298 Causal explanation 178 Facts, “facts” 26, 279, 295, 296, 369, 373 “Fallacy of misplaced concreteness” 27, 83, 234, 295, 357, 395, 396 Family organization 268 Family, Socialization and Interaction Process 95, 130, 166 Fascism 150, 150–57, 170, 180, 183, 186, 226, 277, 284, 381 Father symbol 166 Fiduciary complex, responsibility, system 134, 135, 141, 252, 269, 316, 328, 349 Financial crisis 295, 383–91 Financial markets 199 Financial sector 213 Flower Power 282–3 Force and fraud 28, 314, 349 Fraud 389 Force as related to power 211, 278 Four functions, four dimensions of action space 98, 128, 130, 262–3, 303, 305, 325 Four-stage (re)socialization 132–3, see also, L–I–G–A scheme Frame of reference 28, 109, 294, 394, 396 Action frame of reference 102, 301, 325 Analytical frame of reference 83, 214, 340, 374 Frankfurt School 145ff., 293 Freedom of thought, expression, inquiry, movement, choice 120, 123, 189, 207, 208, 267, 282, 297, 372, 376, 382 “Führerprinzip” 37 Function 224 Functional complex 349 Functional differentiation 211 Functional specificity in occupational system 323–4 Functional Specificity–Functional Diffuseness 115–6 Functionally specific orientation 119 Fundamentalism 152, 157, 284, 381 Geisteswissenschaften 11, 14, 18, 22, 52 Gemeinschaft 373 Generalized analytical theory 95, 178 Generalized symbolic media 217, see also, Interaction, symbolization Germany, Germans 89, 114, 124, 152, 171, 174, 176, 186, 211, 269–70, 277, 348, 351, 353, 359 Gesellschaft 373 Gesinnungsethik 31, 373 Globalization 295, 369 Globalized world, challenges of 360–68 Gold in monetary systems 278 Gold-standard pole of symbolization in interaction media 220, 276, 308 Government 228, 264, 382 Grand theory 6, 191, 192, 194, 203, 210, 221 Harvard Pareto Circle 99, 272 Hedonism 282 Heidelberg Sociology Conference 148, 175–83, 393 Heuristic constructs vii, 24, 394 Higher education 264, 372 Higher education, crisis of 271 Historical determinism 8, 188 “Historical individual” 69, 74, 84–7, 396 History 11, 15, 225 History of financial sector and politics 384–7 Homeostasis 41, 99 Humanism 174, 232, 266, 275, 276, 277, 299, 300, 305, 312, 313, 355 Human rights 359 Humane society 97, 173 Humanistic orientation, scholarship 186, 188 Ideal type(s), ideal-type case, ideal-type methodology 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, Subject Index 28, 69–71, 74, 82, 170, 181, 304, 394 Id–Ego–Super-ego 163 Id 168, 192 Identification 121, 168, 258, 279, 284, 314, 349, 363, 370 Primary identification 167 Identity 263, 309 Ideology 176, 178, 205, 207 Ideological bias, conflict 201, 206 Image of society 45 Inclusion 262; see also “Notes on the Problem of Inclusion” Individual, individuality, individualism 22, 51, 227, 233, 275, 377, 378 Institutionalized individualism 39, 225, 265, 269, 312, 363–4, 376, 378, 396 Industrial society, see: Modern industrial society Inequality, inequalities 275, 328, 373, 380 Inferiority–superiority, see: Superiority– inferiority Inflation and deflation in interaction media dynamics 276, 388 Influence 331, 348, 379, see also, Interaction, Loyalty, Persuasion as medium of communication 276 as medium of symbolization, symbolic exchange 210, 213–4, 249 as non “zero-sum” phenomenon 249–50, 389 and opportunity structure 328 and loyalty, trust 219, 252, 329 Influence banking 252, 277 Information theory 41, 217–21 Insecurity 152, 153, 277, 278, 363, 382 Institutions 97, 213, 233, 210, 273, 284 Institutional pattern, institutional order 203, 278–9, 322, 324, 390 Institutionalization 102, 110, 264, 373, 395 Institutionalization vs anomie 110 Institutionalization vs power politics 213 Institutions and individuals 275, 276 Instrumental activism 210, 232 439 Integration, integration of society, integrated society x, 27, 33–4, 38, 47, 52, 218, 240, 253, 258, 261, 263, 264, 265, 266, 268, 282, 338, 339, 349, 351, 369 Integration vs anomie 220, 352 Integrative and anomic pole of media of communication 276 Crisis of integration, malintegration 217, 309 Integration of blacks 372 Integrative process and influence medium 328 Integrity 276 Intellectuals 221, 229–30, 228, 233 Public intellectuals 232 Interaction 45, 52, 217, 250, 294, 311, 369, 379 Interaction media 217–21, 278, 307–8, 388 Interaction media and normative order 213 Interaction media: anomie vs integrative pole 220 Interaction media: cybernetic hierarchy 220 Interaction media: Inflation–deflation 221 Interests 206, 325, 339 Internalization, introjection 52, 75, 121, 163, 167, 168, 251, 284, 373 International order 206, 370–71 Islam 382 Jews 89, 153, 154, 156, 173, 268, 348, 375 Judeo-Christian tradition, Western culture 204, 258 Judiciary, justice system 134, 200, 201 Kinship 323–4, 327, 330, 336 Knowledge 26, 49, 229, 233, 396 Knowledge interest 16, 20, 150, 173, 294, 394, 396 Language 49, 250, 253, 373, 379 Law 211, 240, 264, 269, 312, 314, 331, 350, 354 440 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Lawlessness 110 Lawyers 124, 201 Leadership 213, 214, 253 Learning 122, 215, 274 Learning process 166 Learning theory 279 Legal system, legal profession 98, 133–4, 265, 376, 389, 391 Legality 27, 211, 213, 314, 339 Interpretation of legal norms 252 Liberalism, liberal position 32, 33 35, 37, 58, 123, 154, 179, 238 Liberal pattern, liberal society 120, 373 L–I–G–A scheme 98, 129–30, 132–3, 134, 302, 305 Local communities 326 Loyalty, loyalties 207, 210, 252, 253, 276, 314, 380 Marxism 28, 42, 43, 65–6, 175, 178, 183, 188, 397 Marxist theory of class 317 Mass society 200n, 209 Matthew effect 327, 336 McCarthyism 31, 46, 172, 200, 218, 253, 351, 355, 397 Meaning, meaning structures 17, 35, 49, 51, 52, 109–10, 220, 221, 250, 278, 279, 307, 379, 390 Meaningfulness 52, 331, 336, 359 Media of communication, see: Influence, Money, Power, Value-commitments Media of interaction, see: Influence, Money, Power, Value-commitments Medical profession, medical practice 37, 98, 103, 227, 311 Membership 278, 308, 349, 357, 380 Membership in pluralistic society 252 Membership in the collectivity 262 Methodology vii, 14, 25, 69, 80, 86, 169, 176, 221, 254, 286, 294, 340, 369, 393 Methodological error 3, 295 Methodological individualism 238, 257 Methodological perspectivism 26 Methodological prerequisites 102 Methods 50, 188 Microeconomics 249 Mind 49–51, 251 Modernity 4, 38, 45, 97, 174, 258, 339, 360, 369 Modernization 205, 352, 374, 377, 389 Modern industrial society, industrial order 47, 64, 122, 139, 158n, 183, 198, 204, 206, 207, 246, 304, 305, 336, 395 Modern democracy 261, 263, 297, 303, 315, 351 Modern capitalism, modern economy 123, 130, 170, 175, 244, 390 Money, money system 213, 217, 314, 328, 331 as medium of communication 307, 383, 387 as medium of symbolic exchange, symbolic meaning 213, 251, 268, 388–9 as non “zero-sum” phenomenon 249–50, 264, 278, 279, 388–9 as measure of values 388 Morality, moral authority, moral forces, moral order 40, 97, 122, 219, 274, 275, 276, 279, 280, 284, 312, 313, 314, 322, 350, 376, 379 Moral and amoral 380 Moral philosophy, moral sciences 7, 11 Moral values and affect 328 Morgenthau plan 353 Muslims 313, 375 National Socialism x, 4, 31, 35–6, 43, 89, 151, 154, 155, 159, 170, 172, 173, 179, 228, 297, 299, see also, Germany Nation-state 370, 371 Nature 8, 11, 15, 234 Natural sciences 78, 103, 182 New Deal 35, 199, 293, 389, 390, 395 New School for Social Research 90 Non “zero-sum” phenomenon, structures 212, 307, 387, 380, 389 Subject Index Normative order, normative structure 262, 264, 308, 328, 371, see also, Morality Norms 206, 252, 264 “Notes on the Process of Inclusion” 258, 262, 270 Object-cathexis 167, 168 “Objectivity” (objectivity) ix, xi, 8, 24, 29, 35, 84, 176, 183, 294, 393–5 Objectivity and empirical observation 189 Objective scientific knowledge 119 Occidental culture 190, 316 Occupational structure and system 199n, 205, 300, 304, 323, 324, 327 Office 211, 214, 324 Older-style “individualists” 375, 377 One World 360 Opportunity factors 205 “Order and Community in the International Social System” 370–71 Participation, participatory democracy 240, 262, 283 Particularism 37 Pattern variables 115–8, 122, 127, 305, 325–6 Pattern-maintenance function 218, 253 Personality 165, 167, 276, 314 Perspectivism, analytical 17, 22, 24, 35, 85, 180, 294, 394, 396 Persuasion 214, 232, 252, 278, 328, 348, 379 Philosophy of history, mind 12, 15–6, 36, 49, 189, Philosophy of science 27, 189, 235, 255, 394 Physician 122, 131, 135, 139, 154 Pluralism, pluralist society 36, 46, 47, 208, 233, 240, 264, 265, 268, 271, 281, 303, 313, 327, 372, see also, Democracy, Differentiation, Integration Pluralist democratic regime 373 Pluralistic differentiation 329 Pluralistic loyalties 253 Ethnic pluralism 330 441 Pluralization 264, 266, 281, 349, 376 Pluralization vs polarization 309, 371 Polarization 372 Political power 201, 209, 213, 217, 325, 328, 331, 339, 380 as medium of exchange, symbolization, non “zero-sum” phenomenon 192, 198, 202, 210, 212–5, 249–50, 276, 389 Power vs powerlessness 209 Power bank 250 Polity 213, 303, 305, 349, 387 Polity and the sphere of money 391 Political autonomy, liberty 199, 206 Politics and Social Structure 31, 36, 52 217–20, 370 Positivism 6, 7, 14, 18, 27, 61, 89, 147, 183, 238, 298 Poverty 267–8, 328, 354, 378 Prejudice 126, 158 Prestige 120, 199, 324 Process 50, 132, 218 Professions (learned professions), 116n, 141, 157, 194, 228, 328 Professionals 121, 133 Professional competence, professional ethics 164, 271 Professionalism 19, 139, 300, 311, 376 Sociology as profession 229, 398 Academic profession 266 Profit Motive 122 Psychoanalysis, psychotherapy 121, 122, 147, 163–9, 170, 271 Psychoanalysis and sociology 173 Public authority, interest, opinion 51, 134, 390 Race 37, 318–9, 331 Race discrimination 300 Racism 91, 299 Ranking in class status 322 Rationality 27, 67, 70, 76, 155, 182, 227, 232, 278, 291, 339 Rational action, behaviour 164, 298 Rational-legal authority 28, 175 Rechtsstaat 35, 183, 220, 272, 351, 382 442 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Reciprocity 27, 51, 120, 132, 168, 254, 276, 339, 369, 378, 396 Reciprocity in social relations 45, 219, 256, 302 Re-education 158n Reflexivity 51 Reformism 59, 66 Religion, religious attitudes 118, 135, 219, 240, 264, 265–6, 269, 327, 373, 375, 376, 379, 382, see also, Civil religion, Secularization Religion in the United States 207–8 Responsibility, responsible actor 168, 216, 374, 391, 396, 398 Responsibility of social scientist 189, 235 Responsibility, level of 329 Revolution 194, 281, 380 Revolutionary radicalism 154 Revolutions, industrial—political— educational 46 Roles, role expectations, relations, structures 120, 122, 198, 211, 264, 302, 355 System of role relations 166 Rousseauistic thinking 282, 328, 349 Scapegoating 158 Science 119, 124, 189, 226, 240, 265, 269, 313, 340, 379 Social science, social sciences 20, 104, 123, 106, 122, 375, 378 Science and ethics, occidental heritage 123, 233 Scientific community 232 Secularization, secular ethics 149, 150, 208, 277, 280, 376 Security 27, 122, 240, 276–84, 277, 278, 284, 315, 339, 389 Security and affect 279 Self-interest 33, 38, 97, 120, 134, 220, 274 Self-orientation–Collectivityorientation 117 Self-orientation–Other-orientation 116 Self-realization in democratic society 141 Sentiment, sentiments 272–6, 280, 379, 391 Sentiments: actor as responsible individual 274 Service 133, 233, 279, 314 Social action 27, 273, 286, 296–7, 298, 337–8, 351–2 Social action through information exchange 220 Social change 33, 211n, 224, 269 Social classes, stratification 199, 322–4, 330 Social class and mobility, Oxford approach 320–21 Social class, Weberian theory 319–20 Social control 207 Social control as social change, three types 158–9 Social inequality 295, 300, 316–40 Social justice 33, 206, 213, 227, 380 Social mobility 315, 324, 330 Mobility rates 336 Social order 207, 263–4, 351, 373 Social order, disruption of 389 Social-order pole of media 308 Social process 211n, 352 Social reform 58, 395 Social relations, social relationships 50, 122, 211, 281, 294, 302 Social Science—A Basic National Resource 104–5, 125 Social Science—A National Resource 125 Socialism 155, 202, 264 Socialism, Soviet-style 97 Socialization 122, 141, 167, 282, 283 Socialization: sequence of identifications 168 Societal community 4, 33, 38, 218, 239, 257–8, 261–9, 269–72, 276, 284, 293, 308, 316, 326, 328, 331, 349, 379, 391, 396 Societal community = “society” over polity 391 Societal community, Germany 269– 70, United States 270–71, 351 Society 11, 51, 52, 91, 219, 308, see also, Anomie, Integration, Values “Good society” 150 “Society” 303, 305, 349 Ideal society 59, 202 Subject Index Sociology and Modern Society 87 Sociology in America 6, 147, 169, 191–2, 237, 292, 293, 393–4 Sociology of law 133–5, 175, 178, 186 Sociology of medicine 131–3 Sociology of religion 179, 276 Solidarity 214, 219, 260, 261, 266, 268, 276, 279, 280, 281, 284, 329, 349, 350, 372, 379, 391 South Africa 371–2, 373 Soviet industrial society 205, 206 Soviet Union, Soviet Russia 114, 124, 194, 205, 359, 371 Soviet society 204 Spirit 298 Spirit of capitalism 76, 110, 332, 396 “Geist” (mind) 52 “Geist” des Kapitalismus 86 Spirit of humanism 316 Spirit of science 194 State and economy 370 Stratification aspect of social system 325 Stratification scale 329 Structural functionalism, structuralfunctional system theory 97, 99, 101, 102, 108, 133, 141, 148, 163, 165, 220, 293, 331–2, 338, 394 Structure of functioning society 211, 224 Structure and function 100 Structure and processes 378 Structure of social action—twopronged 28, 34 Structure and Process in Modern Societies 302–3 Student activism, student radicalism 232, 283 Students and progress in democracy 233 Studien über Autorität und Familie 151 Superego 66, 167 Superiority–inferiority 316, 322, 330, 338, 350 Symbolization 45, 249, 254, 264, 276, 286, 379, 383, 395 Symbolization, four categories 380 Symbolic representation 50, 52, 258, 262, 266 443 Symbolic structure of knowledge, action, culture 50, 119, 251, 379 Symbolic interaction media dynamics 38, 213–14, 217–21, 256, 293, 316 Symbolic action orientation, normative order 213, 357 Tabloid thinking 158, 162 Teleological and teleonomic 40 Terrorism 368, 381–2, 383 The American Societal Community 25, 30, 32, 39, 43, 239, 258, 261, 274, 280, 294, 354, 395 The American University 229, 283 The Authoritarian Personality 145, 149, 160–61, 172, 173 The Devil’s Handwriting 383 The Disobedient Generation vi, 191 “The Distribution of Power in American Society” 198–204 The First New Nation 137–9 The Port Huron Statement 191n, 192, 230–32, 293 The Power Elite 194–8, 204 210, 215, 220, 221 The Social System 36, 37, 52, 90, 93ff., 96, 98, 99, 102, 107, 108, 111–14, 122, 124, 125, 140, 142, 166n, 203, 241, 246, 273, 293, 301, 302, 303, 305, 325, 354, 387, 395 “The Social System: Structure and Function” 105–7, 110–11, 125 The Sociological Imagination 191, 192, 203, 204, 221, 223, 225 “The Sociology of Modern Anti-Semitism” 157n The Structure of Social Action 6, 25, 30, 32, 36, 37, 39, 40, 52, 58, 61, 76, 82, 90, 93, 109, 129, 190, 240, 241, 274, 295, 296, 322, 393, 396 The System of Modern Societies 257 Theory, theoretical approach 255, 293, 356–7, 372, 393 Theoretical approach, early work 298–9 444 The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Theoretical approach, “middle phase” 302–3 Theoretical approach, late oeuvre 308–11 Theory of liberalism 334–5 Therapeutic process, relationship 130, 132, see also, L–I–G–A scheme, Physician, psychoanalysis Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States 377 Tolerance 220, 281, 396 Totalitarian order, totalitarianism 155 Toward a General Theory of Action 94, 103, 166n Unit act 296–7, 300 United States 156, 159, 194, 206, 215, 231, 241, 270–71, 277, 326, 348, 355, 371, 372, see also, American democracy, society Universalism 37, 124, 275, 284, 323 Universalism–Achievement pattern 98, 114, 118, 119–20, 122, 125, 141, 240, 241, 271, 280, 303, 338, 354, 395, 396; see also, American ethos Universalism–Particularism 115 Universities 194, 229, 240, 265, 266–7, 269, 283, 299, 313, 314 Universities and social change 231–2 University and tradition of humanism 233 University crisis 271–2 Influence, medium of interaction re university 232–3 “Upgrading” 269, 272, 352 “Upgrading” vs inferiority-superiority 309, 310–11 Utilitarianism, utilitarian thinking 28, 30, 33, 42, 61, 68, 76 89, 91, 122, 238–40, 243, 257, 274, 286, 298, 396, see also, Self-interest Utilitarian attitudes 75 Utilitarian interests (pursuit of selfinterest) 265, 371 Utilitarian view on medical practice 261 Utility 244n, 246, 276, 389 Utopianism 4, 201, 202 Values 22, 37, 51, 119, 179, 206, 218, 230, 264, 274, 276, 298, 325, 354, 357 Values = desirable type society 217–18, 357, 372–3 Values in American society, in modern society 226–8, 380 Values of equality, freedom, and justice 314 Value bindingness 217 Value pattern(s), value-orientation pattern 76, 114, 119, 141, 218, 227, 228, 240, 302, 357, 273, 395 Value-commitments as interaction media 205, 216, 219, 226, 228, 276–8, 331, 357, 389, see also, Commitment Value-commitments and “Value freedom” 235 Value-commitments and opportunity structure 328 Value-commitments and social class 331 “Value freedom” (“Wertfreiheit”) ix, xi, 7, 24, 29, 34, 67, 84, 89, 176, 178, 189, 234–5 “Value freedom” and American ethos 395–8 Varieties of Capitalism 374–5 Verantwortungsethik 374 Verstehen 12, 52, 70, 74, 183 Vested interests 153 Voluntarism 28, 40, 41, 75, 76, 282, 299, 300, 332, 336, 377, 378 Voluntary associations 371, 375 War of All Against All 141, 212, 351, 370, 371 Watergate Affair, Watergate crisis 270–71, 316, 355 Wechselwirkung 52 Western civilization, Western society 178, 194, 205, 206, 207, 232, 371 Wirklichkeitswissenschaft 13, 225 Wirtschaftsethik 80 Women 227, 283 Working Papers in the Theory of Action 38, 95, 128, 166, 241, 303 World society 192 ... Interchange and the Distortion of Parsons Generalized The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons commemorating the centenary of Parsons s birth, Alexander specifies for the societal community The Promise... relationship between the economy and the structures of order and power Parsons likewise took for the grounding of his theory the society as experienced, the empirical world of the day, from the 1930s when... The Social System (Glencoe, IL: The Free Press), 108 xii The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons one long chapter, Chapter 7, the longest in the book, delineates three realms where Parsonian social