ABSTRACT

The theory of action represents the core of the sciences of human action. Its tradition within the discipline of sociology is such that all directions of thinking have made their own particular contributions to it. Anyone wishing to work on this tradition with the intent of developing it further with an eye to the future must set out from its present level of development and then go on to provide a new formulation of the work of the classics, maintaining their vitality and their relevance to the future. The performance of this task leads inexorably to the work of Talcott Parsons. Sociologists of the most different persuasions are at least unanimously agreed on the importance and the extent of Parsons’s contribution to the theory of action. Equally, all are agreed on the immense scope of his work and hence its significance for all sciences of human action, well beyond the confines of sociology as such. Where, however, there is a great lack both of clarity and of unanimity is in the interpretation of his contribution.