Table Of ContentACTION (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
