37 Quotes by Talcott Parsons

A gloss is a total system of perception and language.

But the fact a person denies that he is theorising is no reason for taking him at his word and failing to investigate what implicit theory is involved in his statements.

It is that of increasing knowledge of empirical fact, intimately combined with changing interpretations of this body of fact - hence changing general statements about it - and, not least, a changing a structure of the theoretical system.

Of course there may well be particular reasons why Spencer rather than others is dead, as there were also particular reasons why he rather than others made such a stir.

The importance of certain problems concerning the facts will be inherent in the structure of the system.

Spencers god was Evolution, sometimes also called Progress.

Special emphasis should be laid on this intimate interrelation of general statements about empirical fact with the logical elements and structure of theoretical systems.

Thus, in general, in the first instance, the direction of interest in empirical fact will be canalised by the logical structure of the theoretical system.

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.