Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons
Picture by Lois Lord
Born	(1902-12-13)December 13, 1902 Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Died	May 8, 1979(1979-05-08) (aged 76) Munich, West Germany
Nationality	American
Fields	Sociology
Institutions	Harvard University
Alma mater	Amherst College London School of Economics University of Heidelberg
Notable students	Robert Merton
Influences	Émile Durkheim, Max Weber

Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in the development of sociology in the 20th century. After earning a PhD in economics, he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1979, and in 1930, was among the first professors in its newly created sociology department.

Based on empirical data, Parsons' social action theory was the first broad, systematic, and generalizable theory of social systems developed in the United States. Some of Parsons's largest contributions to sociology in the English-speaking world were his translations of Max Weber's work and his analyses of works by Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Vilfredo Pareto. Their work heavily influenced Parsons' view, and was the foundation for his social action theory, in which he viewed voluntaristic action through the lens of the cultural values and social structures that constrain choices and ultimately determine all social actions, as opposed to actions that are determined based on internal psychological processes. Although Parsons is generally considered a structural functionalist, towards the end of his career in 1975, he published an article in which he stated the terms "functional" and "structural functionalist" were inappropriate ways to describe the character of his theory.

Beginning in the 1970s, a new generation of sociologists criticized Parsons' theories, viewing his work as socially conservative and his prose as unnecessarily complex. Since that time, sociology classrooms have placed less emphasis on his theories relative to the peak of his popularity from the 1940s to the 1970s. However, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in his ideas.

Talcott Parsons was born December 13, 1902 in Colorado Springs. He was the son of Edward Smith Parsons (1863–1943) and Mary Augusta Ingersoll (1863–1949). His father had attended Yale Divinity School and was ordained as a Congregationalist minister, serving first as a minister for a pioneer community in Greeley, Colorado. At the time of Parsons' birth Edward S. Parsons was a professor in English at Colorado College and vice-president of the college.