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All Talcott Parsons Quotes
The main concern of the study is with the outline of a theoretical system. Its minor variations from writer to writer are not a matter of concern to this analysis.
Talcott Parsons
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The conception that, instead of this, contemporary society is at or near a turning point is very prominent in the views of a school of social scientists who, though they are still comparatively few, are getting more and more of a hearing.
Talcott Parsons
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That is, a system starts with a group of interrelated propositions which involve reference to empirical observations within the logical framework of the propositions in question.
Talcott Parsons
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Spencer's god was Evolution, sometimes also called Progress.
Talcott Parsons
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The part an actor played on stage was once written on a separate roll of paper.
Talcott Parsons
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Empirical interest will be in the facts so far as they are relevant to the solution of these problems.
Talcott Parsons
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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.
Talcott Parsons
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But the scientific importance of a change in knowledge of fact consists precisely in j its having consequences for a system of theory.
Talcott Parsons
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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.
Talcott Parsons
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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.
Talcott Parsons
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From all this it follows what the general character of the problem of the development of a body of scientific knowledge is, in so far as it depends on elements internal to science itself.
Talcott Parsons
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Among those who are satisfactory in this respect it is desirable to have represented as great a diversity of intellectual tradition, social milieu and personal character as possible.
Talcott Parsons
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