ISBN:
9780415738965
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (559 p)
Series Statement:
Theoretical Logic in Sociology
Parallel Title:
Print version Modern Reconstruction of Classical Thought (Theoretical Logic in Sociology) : Talcott Parsons
DDC:
301
Keywords:
Electronic books
Abstract:
〈P〉In this volume the author maintains that sociology must learn to combine the insights of both Durkheim and Marx and that it can only do so on the presuppositional ground that Weber set forth. Alexander maintains that the idealist and materialist traditions must be transformed into analytic dimensions of multidimensional and synthetic theory. This volume focusses on the writing of Talcott Parsons, the only modern thinker who can be considered a true peer of the classical founders, and examines his own profoundly ambivalent attempt to carry out this analytic transformation. 〈/P〉
Description / Table of Contents:
Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Original Title Page; Original Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Preface: Theoretical Thought and Its Vicissitudes: The Achievements and Limitations of Classical Sociology; Chapter One: Theoretical Controversy and the Problematics of Parsonian Interpretation; Chapter Two: The Early Period: Interpretation and the Presuppositional Movement toward Multidimensionality; 1. Percept and Precept: Postpositivist Aspects of Parsons' Meta-Methodology; 2. Precepts as Presuppositions: The Synthetic Intention; 2.1. The Multidimensional Approach to Action
Description / Table of Contents:
2.2. The Multidimensional Approach to Collective Order3. Later Refinements of Multidimensional Order; 3.1. Generalization-Specification; 3.2. The Cybernetic Continuum; 3.3. Beyond the Classics; 4. Symbolic Order and Internalization: Later Refinements of the Voluntarism Problem; 5. Conclusion: ""Systematic Theory"" and Its Ecumenical Ambition; Chapter Three: The Middle Period: Specifying the Multidimensional Argument; 1. ""Specification"" and the Stages of Theoretical Development; 2. The Empirical Essays and the Pattern-Variable Critique of Instrumental Rationality
Description / Table of Contents:
3. Empirical Specification of Multidimensionality in the Later-Middle Work3.1. Personality, Culture, Society; 3.2. Allocation and Integration; 3.3. The Basic Structural Formations of Societies; 3.4. The Pattern Variables in Systemic Context; 3.5. Conclusion: The Social System and Its Critics; 4. The Change Theory and the Vicissitudes of Western Development; 4.1. The General Multidimensional Theory; 4.2. Rationalization, Anomie, and Revolution; 4.3. The Deviance Paradigm: Reformulating Strain and Its Control; 4.4. Conclusion: The Change Theory and Its Critics
Description / Table of Contents:
Chapter Four: The Later Period (1): The Interchange Model and Parsons' Final Approach to Multidimensional Theory1. Interchange and Its Presuppositional Logic; 1.1. The Problem of Interpretation; 1.2. The Limitations of Parsons' Middle-Period Theorizing; 1.3. The Focus of Interchange: Refining the Multidimensional Model; 2. Economics as Interchange: Elaborating the Critique of Classical Economics; 3. Politics as Interchange; 3.1. Refining the Multidimensional Conceptualization; 3.2. Politics and the Combinatorial Process; 3.3. Beyond the Classics: Parsons' Durkheim-Weber Synthesis
Description / Table of Contents:
4. Integration as Interchange: ""Solidarity"" beyond Idealism4.1. Integration Defined: Solidarity and the Logic of Interchange; 4.2. The Nature of Solidary Interchange; 4.3. The Historical Production of Citizenship Solidarity; 4.4. The Interchange Theory of Integration and the Limitations of Parsons' Classical Predecessors; 5. Interchange and the Respecification of Parsons' Value Theory; 5.1. Value Interchange and the Differentiation of Scope; 5.2. ""Rationality"" and the University: Interchange, Value Specification, and Conflict; 5.3. The Value Theory and Its Critics
Description / Table of Contents:
5.4. Multidimensional Values and the Dialogue with Durkheim and Weber
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
