Some Remarks on "The Social System"

Abstract

'N the statement of general sociological thcory which is The Social 5>ySt6}}l, [I] Professor Parsons has attempted to sift and summarize in , isystematic form the significant lessons of past thinking in sociology and set out a rrogrammc for the future. This enterprise is the product of a steady and consistent growth reaching back some twenty years to his initial study of cminent sociological theorists in The Strazctsre of Social Action. The intention of the present cssay, however, is not to give an expositio} of the Parsonian system of sociology,[2] but to develc)p in somc detail speciSc criticisms which might be levelled against his conceptualization of the dynamics of social systems, and, morc particularly, of societies. To treat of such a large subject s7ithin so small a space is no doubt unwise in one sense; in another it is an incentive to delincatc rnore sharply what is at issuc. In particular, empllasis uill be placed on the non-normative elements of social action which seena to constitutc a set of variables which Parsons has ignored by concentrating OI1 thc normativc elements of social structurc and process. This omission may be interpreted as an accomplishment since it is the means of givingsociologyamore definite status as a special social science; but whether it is a position that can bc maintained in practice without inconsistency is open to severe doubt, or so it seems to the writcr. This much of the vein of criticism may be anticipated.

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