Talk:Talcott Parsons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Biography This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. Biography Portal ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] Please rate the article and, if you wish, leave comments here regarding your assessment or the strengths and weaknesses of the article. Sociology WikiProject     (Rated Start-Class) This article is supported by the Sociology WikiProject, which gives a central approach to sociology and related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article Talcott Parsons, or visit the project page for more details on the projects. Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale. WikiProject Systems     (Rated B-Class) Systems science Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Systems, which collaborates on articles related to Systems science. Systems rating: B Class High importance  Field: Cybernetics Please update this rating as the article progresses, or if the rating is inaccurate. Please also add comments to suggest improvements to the article.

Contents 1 Hastily constructed 2 Edits 3 Parsons' Translation of Weber 4 Vandalism 11/8/2007 5 Further reading section removed 6 Middle Names 6.1 Further readings

[edit] Hastily constructed

This article appears to have been hastily constructed and is in severe need of rewriting—or at the very least, an editor with a keen eye for detail.

[edit] Edits

I have attempted to begin the editing process, but it would be nice if someone more familiar with Parsons' work would become involved.

the guy was a prick...that much i can tell about him......his work..never clearly understood...

I really feel no inclination and it's not my field, but I agree. Also, the publications should be in order of publishing, seems to me, with the most recent at the bottom and outdated or irrelevant pubs deleted.

On 8/5/06, I added some books to the reference list, gave a fuller account of his mode of functional analysis, including the AGIL scheme, and made some minor edits. I also deleted a few statements here and there that seemed out of place for this article. More clean-up may be useful. In particular, the pattern variable description is now very limited and needs expansion if this section is to be retained.

I removed this section because it has been vandalised:

"After a year as instructor of economics at Amherst, he joined Huddersfield as an instructor of scientology in 1910. In 1931, he moved to the Department of Sociology that had been created a year earlier by Pitirim Sorokin. He initially moved up in rank only slowly, but became extremely influential after the publication of some major works, such as 'support your bartender, helping ugly people get laid.' Parsons stayed at Huddersfield and became emeritus in 1973. He died in 1979 in a freak shark related acccident in a Munich aquarium."

[edit] Parsons' Translation of Weber

One of my mentors alleges that Parsons' translations of Weber were flawed. As I am not fluent in German I cannot confirm or deny these charges? If there is merit to said accusations, however, they should be noted in the article. What does it say about Parsons and structural-functionalism if Parsons misinterpretted Weber (either intentionally or out of ignorance) and then went on to publish some of his key works according to his own falty translations. Again, however, I am not making such accusations but merely relaying them to fellow inquirers. Can someone who either (1) has read multiple translated versions of Weber, or (2) is fluent in German, comment on the validity of the Parsons translation? M. Frederick 08:09, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism 11/8/2007

I'm really not sure why this page would attract vandalism, but it certainly has. See the following passage of the article, which I'm not sure what to do with (breakdancing and hip-hop rapping - apparently an insult for the vandal...?):

"Parsons contributed to the field of breakdancing and hip-hop rapping. He divided evolution into four subprocesses: 1) differentiation, which creates functional subsystems of the main system, as discussed above; 2) adaptation, where those systems evolve into more efficient versions; 3) inclusion of elements previously excluded from the given systems; and 4) generalization of values, increasing the legitimization of the ever-more complex system."

I've reverted to the version immediately before this strangely random vandalism. Fixifex 18:09, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Further reading section removed

I removed the foloowing list of publications abot the work of Parsons. Such a list has little added value here. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 23:01, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Middle Names

What was the source for the middle names? His family is unaware of any middle names, and the family genealogy does not list any middle names. (I'm his grandson, and his daughter is in the room as I type). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dauwhe (talk • contribs) 23:47, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Further readings

• Alexander, J.C. 1982. Theoretical Logic in Sociology. Vol. I. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Alexander, J.C. 1984. “The Parsons revival in German sociology”, Pp. 394-412 in R. Collins (ed.). Sociological Theory 1984. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Cohen, I.J. 1996. “Theories of Action and Praxis”, Pp. 111-142 in B.S. Turner (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Connell, R.W. 1997. “Why Is Classical Theory Classical?” American Journal of Sociology 102:1511-1557.
• Fararo, Thomas J. 2001. Social Action Systems: Foundation and Synthesis in Sociological Theory. Westport, CT: Praeger.
• Grathoff R. (ed.). 1978. The Theory of Social Action: The correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Talcott Parsons. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.
• Habermas, Jürgen. 1985. "Theory of Communicative Action". Beacon Press. (Second Volume)
• Hamilton, Peter. 1983 Readings from Talcott Parsons. London: Tavistock Publications. 33-55.
• Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. 1995. Sociology: Themes & Perspectives. London: Collins Educational.
• Lackey, Pat N. 1987 Invitation to Talcott Parsons’ Theory. Houston: Cap and Gown Press. 3-15.
• Levine, Donald N. 1991. “Simmel and Parsons Reconsidered.” American Journal of Sociology 96:1097-1116.
• Luhmann, Niklas. 1995. Social Systems. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Mills, C, Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press.
• Parsons, Talcott. [1937] 1967. Structure of Social Action: Vol. II. Free Press.
• Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Free Press.
• Perdue, William D. 1986. Sociological Theory: Explanation, Paradigm, and Ideology. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. 112-119.
• Rocher, Guy. 1975. Talcott Parsons and American Sociology. New York: Barnes & Nobles.
• Sewell, W.H. Jr. 1992 “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation.” American Journal of Sociology 98:1-29.
• Turner, Jonathan H. 1998. The Structure of Sociological Theory. Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth.
• Wallace, Walter L. 1969 Sociological Theory: An introduction. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
• Weber, Max. 1947. The Theory of Social and Economic Organizations. Free Press.
• Zeuner, Lilli 2001. “Social Concepts between Construction and Revision.” Danish National Institute for Social Research. Copenhagen.