Table Of Content

ACTION (Continued from front flap) ology of higher education, Part III with the sociology of THEORY religion. Each essay is important in the growth of action theory; in addition, the Introductions to each Part, and the General Introduction to the volume as a whole, AND THE provide valuable insights into Talcott Parsons' intellec HUMAN tual evolution, the main themes of, and influences on, his work, and his view of the significance of each selection. Thus, Action Theory and the Human Condi CONDITION tion offers a new contribution to Parsons' intellectual autobiography, emphasizing his most recent concerns and expressing the latest directions his theoretical work TALCffiT PARSONS is taking. Talcott Parsons' career has involved a systematic endeavor to improve our understanding of problems central to a given analytical level by framing them in This newest collection of Talcott Parsons' essays con terms of the next more general level: to consider the tinues to document the central trends of his intellectual economy in terms of the social system as a whole, to career over the past decade, a project initiated by its consider the social system in terms of the wider action recent predecessor, Social Systems and the Evolution of system (with which his career is most closely identi Action Theory. In that volume, Professor Parsons fied). Now, in Action Theory and the Human Condition, helped to solve problems in the study of the social he introduces the seminal steps in a new venture, a system by considering them in a broader structural theoretical advance in the articulation of the general framework, that of the general theory of action. This system of action within the broader structural frame book is organized so as to produce a further develop work of the Human Condition. ment: illuminating questions in action theory by plac ing them against a still broader background, that of the "human condition," considered as a theoretical ABOUT THE AUTHOR system. The "piece de resistance" of this volume, as Parsons Talcott Parsons is one of America's most distinguished calls it, is a new and never-before-published paper, "A and influential sociologists, and the author of the clas Paradigm of the Human Condition." This is the first sic studies The Structure of Social Action and The formal statement of the efforts, by Parsons and a group Social System. He received his A.B. from Amherst of his collaborators, to develop a theoretical structure College, studied at the London School of Economics, which reflects the relations of the action system with and earned his Dr. Phil. at the University of the other components of the human condition-the Heidelberg. He recently retired as Professor of Soci physical world, the organic world, and the nonempiri ology at Harvard University, where he had served for a cal category of experience which Parsons terms the time as Chairman of the Department of Social Rela "telic system." The essay represents a breakthrough in tions. Professor Parsons is a member and former Presi the author's attempts to construct a comprehensive dent of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. conceptual scheme that permits systematic analysis of Among his numerous books are Essays in Sociological the "boundary problems" of the system of action in its Theory, Social Structure and Personality, Politics and relations to these other subsystems of the human Social Structure, Economy and Society, with Neil J. condition. Smelser, and The American University, with Gerald The fourteen essays which precede "A Paradigm of M. Platt. the Human Condition" set the stage for it by exploring, at various empirical levels, such boundary phenomena THE FREE PRESS of the action system. Part I deals with aspects of the A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co.,/nc. sociology of health and illness, Part II with the soci- NEW YORK (Continued on backjlap) JACKET DESIGN BY SAM SA LA NT ACTION THEORY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION ACTION THEORY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION Talcott Parsons THE FREE PRESS A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. NEW YORK Collier Macmillan Publishers LONDON Copyright © 1978 by The Free Press A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. The Free Press A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022 Collier Macmillan Canada, Ltd. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-94084 Printed in the United States of America printing number s 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Parsons, Talcott Action theory and the human condition. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Sociology--Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Social medicine--Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Educational sociology--Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title. HM24.P283 301 77-94084 ISBN 0-02-923990-7 To my fellow members of the Faculty Seminar on the Human Condition University of Pennsylvania, 1974-1976 in appreciation of their contribution to a memorable experience of intellectual effervescence Contents Preface ix General Introduction 1 I. SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS AND RELATED TOPICS Introduction to Part I 11 1. The Sick Role and the Role of the Physician Reconsidered 17 2. Research with Human Subjects and the "Professional Complex" 35 3. Health and Disease: A Sociological and Action ~~~~ ~ 4. The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud 82 II. SOCIOLOGY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Introduction to Part II 91 5. The Future of the University 96 6. Some Considerations on the Growth of the American System of Higher Education and Research 115 7. The University "Bundle": A Study of the Balance Between Differentiation and Integration 133 8. Stability and Change in the American University 154 Ill. SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION Introduction to Part Ill 167 9. Christianity 173 10. Durkheim on Religion Revisited: Another Look at The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life -213 11. Belief, Unbelief, and Disbelief 233 12. The "Gift of Life" and Its Reciprocation 264 13. Religion in Postindustrial America: The Problem of Secularization 300 IV. THE HUMAN CONDITION Introduction to Part IV 325 14. Death in the Western World 331 15. A Paradigm of the Human Condition 352 Bibliography of Talcott Parsons 434 Index 451 vii Preface The present volume is the promised sequel to Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory, published by The Free Press in the summer of 1977. As a sequel it is, relative to the promises made in its predecessor, only a few months late, which seems to me to be a creditable performance, especially since a substantial part of the extra time was taken by the author for last minute revisions, especially of Chapter 15, which is here published for the first time. As compared with its predecessor this volume, though the bulk of it also consists of previously published essays, has a different emphasis. The preceding collection, it may be said, in a relative sense looked more toward the past. This is true above all of Part I of it, which dealt especially with matters significant to my intellectual career and its development. In a somewhat different sense, it was true of Part II, which presented four papers that may be said to have been particularly significant in consoli dating my theoretical position as an analyst· of the social system, and very tentatively looking toward further systematization of the analysis of the general system of action (Chapter 10). Though the difference is relative, the present volume looks more to the future-not, of course, primarily from the personal point of view of the author, who has already exhausted most of his career time span, but along the lines of theoretical development that I hope I will be remem bered as having done something to initiate and stimulate. Concern with the idea of evolution permeates both volumes, and this applies not only to the evolution of theory but also of action systems in an empirical sense. Readers of both will, however, note that the present volume is first concerned substantially more with the general system of action as compared with the stress, in the case of its predecessor, on the social system. Thus all of the sections into which the essays of this volume are divided concern boundaries of the general system of action. This is relatively obvious for the groups dealing with health, in its relation to the organic world, and religion, in relation to what we call the "telic" world. However, it is also true of the treatment of higher education in its rela- ix X PREFACE tions to cognitive culture and to science generally, including the physical and biological sciences and, of course, certain aspects of philosophy. Indeed, the analysis of this book may be said to head up to its con cluding chapter, "A Paradigm of the Human Condition," which, as noted, is here published for the first time. I think its genesis is adequately ex plained in the introductory materials. Here it is sufficient to say that the logic of the line of theoretical development that I have been following throughout my intellectual career has for some time been pointing to the necessity of going, in systematic terms, beyond even the general system of action, to attempt to work out something at a still more general level namely, that which is here called the human condition. The boundary of the general system of action that is most prominently involved is the one vis-a-vis the organic system, a theme which figured prominently in the last collection of essays. We should not, however, neglect the importance of much further exploration of the boundary rela tions between the system of action and the physical world, starting per haps from the recently developing subdiscipline of the sociology of science. And, not least, just possibly there are new opportunities for intellectual progress in understanding the critically important boundary problems be tween the action system and the "telic grounding," as we have chosen to call it, of action in the human condition. This particular way of "looking toward the future" is, among the possibilities available, highly selective. Nonetheless, this avenue has caught not only my own imagination, but also that of a small group of collabora tors. It may not prove to be the least important of the possibilities with which the complex intellectual culture of our time has come to be con cerned. This is, however, in no way meant to disparage other lines of concentration on the intellectual future, notably the more technical de velopments internal to the established disciplines. For persons defined as sociologists, this clearly includes not only the further development of em pirical knowledge in our field, but also the more technical theoretical development, specifically of the theory of the social system. My venturing beyond that area-in a sense of level of generalization-by no means im plies that I feel that all the problems within it have been solved. Quite the contrary! I do feel, however, that putting such problems in a more general framework can contribute importantly to making progress in their solu tion. Perhaps the final section of Chapter 15, dealing with the articulation of human biology with kinship structure at the social level, can serve as an example of this potential. I should like to take this occasion to express my appreciation to The Free Press for be'ing willing to include in the present volume an updated version of the bibliography of my personal publications. After an interval of nearly a decade, this should prove useful to various interested people. Then this is the occasion to express very special thanks to Ms. Mounira Preface xi Charrad. As my research assistant through the period of preparing both the present volume and its predecessor for the press, she has contributed much faithful, detailed, and imaginative work, without which neither book could have been successfully completed. Talcott Parsons October 1977