Talcott Parsons Short Quotes

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Ideology is a system of beliefs, held in common by the members of a collectivity.

Talcott Parsons
A fact is not itself a phenomenon at all, but a proposition about one or more phenomena.

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

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

Talcott Parsons
If capitalism begins as the practical idealism of the aspiring bourgeoisie, it ends... as an orgy of materialism.

Talcott Parsons
The most elementary communication is not possible without some degree of conformity to the conventions of the symbolic system.

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
Sociology should...be thought of as a science of action—of the ultimate common value element in its relations to the other elements of action.

Talcott Parsons
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
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
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
A social system is a mode of organization of action elements relative to the persistence or ordered processes of change of the interactive patterns of a plurality of individual actors.

Talcott Parsons