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Quotes from The structure of social action — Talcott Parsons

1902–1979 United States

← All quotes by Talcott Parsons

2 quotes

The structure of a theoretical system tells us what alternatives are open in the possible answers to a given question. 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 structure of social action (1937)

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. 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.

The structure of social action (1937)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Talcott Parsons (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.