The functions of the family in a highly differentiated society are not to be interpreted as functions directly on behalf of the society, but on behalf of personality.
Talcott ParsonsIf observed facts of undoubted accuracy will not fit any of the alternatives it leaves open, the system itself is in need of reconstruction.
Talcott ParsonsThe hypothesis may be put forward, to be tested by the s subsequent investigation, that this development has been in large part a matter of the reciprocal interaction of new factual insights and knowledge on the one hand with changes in the theoretical system on the other.
Talcott ParsonsTheory not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed.
Talcott Parsons