Parsons might have been the ‘incurable theorist’ he pronounced himself to be in the dedication to The Social System. What I will show, using The Social System as an example of classic writing, was that theory in the guise of what he called ‘theory-centered research’ was an eminently empirically minded kind of social thought. I use three scenarios to elucidate this point, one historical, one methodological and one political. All three together, I argue, make The Social System a model of sociology at its best - not least because Weberian conceptual principles allow for scientific scrutiny along with a pro-democracy knowledge interest in Parsons’s second magnum opus.
(Orig. pub. 1955: ‘Zum Verhältnis von Psychologie und Soziologie’, pp. 11-45 in: Sociologica: Aufsätze Max Horkheimer zum sechzigsten Geburtstag gewidmet. Frankfurt: Europäische Verlagsanstalt.)
2.
Barber, Bernard (1997) ‘Parsons’ Second Project: The Social System. Sources, Developments, and Limitations’ . Paper prepared for: International Conference A Legacy of ‘Verantwortungsethik’: Talcott Parsons’s The Structure of Social Action After Sixty Years, June 26-7, Heidelberg, Germany.
3.
Bell, Daniel (ed.) (1963) The Radical Right: New American Right Expanded and Updated. Garden City, NY: Doubleday .
4.
Brinton, Crane (1949) English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press . (Orig. pub. 1933.)
5.
Bush, Vannevar (1945) Science, the Endless Frontier. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office .
6.
Conant, James W. (1947) On Understanding Science: A Historical Approach. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
7.
1949’, American Journal of Sociology55: 502-505 .
8.
Coser, Lewis (1956) The Functions of Social Conflict. Glencoe, IL: Free Press .
9.
(Orig. pub. 1958: American Journal of Sociology64: 115-127 .)
10.
American Sociological Review18: 103-106 .
11.
Gerhardt, Uta (1999a) ‘National Socialism and the Politics of The Structure of Social Action’, pp. 87-164 in Bernard Barber and Uta Gerhardt (eds) Agenda for Sociology: Classic Sources and Current Uses of Talcott Parsons’s Work. Baden-Baden: Nomos .
12.
Gerhardt, Uta (1999b) ‘Re-education als Demokratisierung Deutschlands durch das amerikanische Besatzungsregime’ , Leviathan37: 355-385 .
13.
Gerhardt, Uta (2002a) Talcott Parsons - An Intellectual Biography. New York: Cambridge University Press .
14.
Gerhardt, Uta (2002b) ‘Worlds Come Apart: Systems Theory versus Critical Theory: Drama in the History of Sociology in the Twentieth Century’ , The American Sociologist33(2): 5-39 .
15.
Hartshorne, Edward Y. (1937) German Universities and National Socialism. London: Allen & Unwin .
Klausner, Samuel and Victor Lidz (eds) (1986) The Nationalalization of the Social Sciences. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press .
18.
Mills, C. Wright (1959) The Sociological Imagination. London, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press .
19.
Neumann, Franz (1942) Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press (2nd enlarged edn, 1944).
20.
Orwell, George (1949) Nineteen Eighty-four. New York: Harcourt, Brace .
21.
Parsons, Talcott (1937) The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of European Writers. New York: McGraw Hill .
22.
Parsons, Talcott (1946) ‘The Science Legislation and the Role of the Social Sciences’ , American Sociological Review11: 653-666 .
23.
3(1): 3-5 .
24.
Parsons, Talcott (1947) ‘Science Legislation and the Social Sciences’ , Political Science Quarterly62: 241-249 .
25.
Parsons, Talcott (1948) Social Science - A Basic National Resource. A Report Prepared for the Social Science Research Council. Social Science Research Council, July. Preliminary Draft. Confidential: For review and criticism. Unpublished manuscript, 76 pp.
26.
Parsons, Talcott (1949) The Social System - Structure and Function. An Essay in Systematic Sociological Theory. Unpublished manuscript, 453 pp.
27.
Republished in paperback, New York: Free Press , 1964.
28.
Parsons, Talcott (1993a) ‘Academic Freedom, 1939’, pp. 85-99 in Uta Gerhardt (ed.) Talcott Parsons on National Socialism. New York: Aldine de Gruyter . (Orig. 1939 - unpublished.)
29.
(Orig. pub. 1942: Review of Politics4 .)
30.
Parsons, Talcott and Bernard Barber (1948) ‘Sociology 1941-1946’ , American Sociological Review13: 245-257 .
31.
Parsons, Talcott and John W. Riley, Jr (1950) Social Science - A National Resource. Unpublished manuscript, 340 pp.
32.
Riley, John W., Jr. and Talcott Parsons (1951) Social Science. A National Resource. Unpublished manuscript, 301 pp.
33.
Weber, Max (1913) (Untitled Contribution to) Äußerungen zur Werturteilsdiskussion im Ausschuss des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, No place, no publisher: ‘Im Manuskript gedruckt, 1913’, pp. 85-128.
34.
(Originally a speech at Munich University, 1918; first published in Max Weber , Gesammelte Politische Schriften, Munich: Duncker and Humblot , 1921.)
35.
(Originally a speech at Munich University, 1919; first published as ‘Wissenschaft als Beruf’, in Max Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1922.)
36.
reprinted, pp. 146-214 in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre, 3rd edn, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1922.)
37.
reprinted, pp. 475-541 in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1922.)
38.
Wirth, Louis (1939) ‘“The Structure of Social Action”. Review by Louis Wirth’ , American Sociological Review4: 400-404 .
39.
Wrong, Dennis H. (1961) ‘The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology’ , American Sociological Review26: 183-193 .
