Talcott Parsons
Research papers on Talcott Parsons are custom written at Paper Masters and include information on this famous sociologist and his theories.
Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) was an American sociologist and professor at Harvard University from 1927 to 1973. Parsons developed action theory, which attempted to balance utilitarian-positivism and hermeneutic-idealism. Parsons believed that individuals relate to objective reality only through our particular encounters with reality. Action theory states that human action must be understood alongside the motivation of the human subject.
The Life of Talcott Parsons
Facts to include in a research paper on the life of Talcott Parsons are:
- Parsons was born in Colorado Springs
- Parsons did his undergraduate work at Amherst College.
- His graduate work was completed at the London School of Economics and the University of Heidelberg, where he received a PhD. in sociology and economics.
- Parsons began teaching at Harvard in 1927 in the Department of Economics until Harvard created a Department of Sociology in 1931.
In addition to his academic work, Parsons spoke out against fascism in the 1930s and 1940s, and communism in the 1950s and 1960s. Ironically, Parsons was investigated during the McCarthy era as a being a communist sympathizer. Parsons was also a vocal proponent of American exceptionalism.
His most famous work is The Structure of Social Action, which combined ideas of Durkheim and Max Weber, among others, to produce social action theory. Parsons also heavily contributed to the theory of social evolution. He believed that Western civilization was the apex of all societies.