Top 27 Quotes by Talcott Parsons

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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