Parsons Versus Marx
An earnest warning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7103291 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Gould (0000-0001-9807-0522, Haverford College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 197-218 |
| Publication date | 1981-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Inquiry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0245 • E-ISSN: 1475-682X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1981.tb00840.x |
| OpenAlex | W2080101970 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 11 |
Parsons's analysis of Marx and its conclusion that Marx was a utilitarian are criticized. I endeavor to demonstrate that Marx succeeded in avoiding the pitfalls of both idealism and positivism and that he must be viewed as the founder of the voluntaristic theory of social action. In addition, I contend that this categorization makes a difference; if we incorporate Marx into action theory, build action theory on a Marxian foundation, certain problems within Parsons's work can be resolved. I illustrate this contention in a discussion of the relationship between structural and functional theory. “An earnest warning is given against... premature claims to finality. The author has been more or less intensively concerned with the major works of the men treated in this study over periods ranging from six to ten years. After considerable periods of occupation in other fields, he has come back to intensive reconsideration of their works. Every time this reconsideration brought to light fundamentally important things about them which had been missed before. The most important points, for the purposes of this study, were not understood at the first reading, but generally only after repeated consideration.” (Parsons, 1948:40
Action (physics · Action theory (sociology · Categorization · Economics · Epistemology · Foundation (evidence · Idealism · Political science · Positive economics · Positivism · Reading (process · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism
God and the Problem of Order
Convergence as Method in Theory Construction
Parsons' Economic Sociology
Marxist Axioms as Self-Contradictory Parsonian Statements in Sociology
No one above suspicion
Voluntarism Versus Utilitarianism
Marx and Weber and the logic of historical explanation
On Choosing One's Intellectual Predecessors
Social systems and the evolution of action theory
Sociological theory and modern society.
Explorations in general theory in social science
Essays in positive economics
The Theory Of Social And Economic Organization
The development of capitalism in South Africa
Selections from the Prison Notebooks
Essays in Sociological Theory
Action theory and the human condition
Religious and Economic Symbolism in the Western World
Law as an Intellectual Stepchild
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1989 - 2016 (28) |
| Highly cited | No |