Julrey Florence C.

Garcia 1-A Legal Philosophy

TALCOTT PARSONS (December 1902 – May 8, 1979)

Summary Report
He was born in Colorado Springs, USA. He was the son
of Edward Smith Parsons and Mary Augusta Ingersoll. At
the time of Parsons' birth, his father was a professor in
English and vice-president at Colorado College.
Education:
Undergraduate: biology, sociology and philosophy
at Amherst College and received his B.A. in 1924.
After Amherst, he studied at the London School of
Economics for a year.
Parsons went on to the University of Heidelberg, where
he received his Ph.D. in sociology and economics in
1927.
Career: Sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973.
Publications: The Structure of Social Action (1937) || The Social System (1951) || Essays in
Sociological Theory (1964) || Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspective (1966) ||
Politics and Social Structure (1969)
Contributions:
In social science, he is considered as an antipositivist. Antipositivism proposes that
social-science researchers first must be aware that the concepts, ideas, and language of
research shape their perception of the social world under investigation. Because for them,
social realm cannot be studied with the scientific method of investigation as applied to the
natural world.
He is also considered as a functionalist, he was concerned with how elements of
society were functional for a society. He was also concerned with social order, but argued that
order and stability in a society are the result of the influence of certain values in society, rather
than in structure such as the economic system. In line with this, Parsons developed the AGIL
paradigm. He considered AGIL (acronym for: Adaptation, Goal attainment, Integration and
Latency) as essential elements for a society so that it can maintain its social order.
He also argues that men and women simply have naturally different roles and that both
are needed for the family to run in a smooth fashion. From this perspective, women should
carry out expressive roles, providing care and security to children, while offering them
emotional support. Men, on the other hand, would perform an instrumental role - more
importantly, being the breadwinner for the family. In other words, women would take the role
of managing the household and raising children, while men provide financial support by
working outside the home. According to Parsons, this complementary division of labor would
ensure stability of the family.