Talcott Parsons Quotes

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Talcott Parsons

Profession : Sociologist

Birth : December 13, 1902

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.

Talcott Parsons

Theory not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed.

Talcott Parsons

The part an actor played on stage was once written on a separate roll of paper.

Talcott Parsons

The importance of certain problems concerning the facts will be inherent in the structure of the system.

Talcott Parsons

But the fact a person denies that he is theorising is no reason for taking him at his word and failing to investigate what implicit theory is involved in his statements.

Talcott Parsons

Spencer's god was Evolution, sometimes also called Progress.

Talcott Parsons

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.

Talcott Parsons

Empirical interest will be in the facts so far as they are relevant to the solution of these problems.

Talcott Parsons

The system becomes logically closed when each of the logical implications which can be derived from any one proposition within the system finds its statement in another proposition in the same system.

Talcott Parsons

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 of circumstances.

Talcott Parsons

But the scientific importance of a change in knowledge of fact consists precisely in j its having consequences for a system of theory.

Talcott Parsons

Among those who are satisfactory in this respect it is desirable to have represented as great a diversity of intellectual tradition, social milieu and personal character as possible.

Talcott Parsons

If observed facts of undoubted accuracy will not fit any of the alternatives it leaves open, the system itself is in need of reconstruction.

Talcott Parsons

From all this it follows what the general character of the problem of the development of a body of scientific knowledge is, in so far as it depends on elements internal to science itself.

Talcott Parsons

If there are four equations and only three variables, and no one of the equations is derivable from the others by algebraic manipulation then there is another variable missing.

Talcott Parsons

Now obviously the propositions of the system have reference to matters of empirical fact; if they did not, they could have no claim to be called scientific.

Talcott Parsons

Of course there may well be particular reasons why Spencer rather than others is dead, as there were also particular reasons why he rather than others made such a stir.

Talcott Parsons

Special emphasis should be laid on this intimate interrelation of general statements about empirical fact with the logical elements and structure of theoretical systems.

Talcott Parsons

That is, a system starts with a group of interrelated propositions which involve reference to empirical observations within the logical framework of the propositions in question.

Talcott Parsons

The main concern of the study is with the outline of a theoretical system. Its minor variations from writer to writer are not a matter of concern to this analysis.

Talcott Parsons