ABSTRACT
Introductory remarks As early as in The Structure of Social Action (1937) Talcott Parsons pointed out the advances in sociological knowledge made by voluntaristic action theory over the two competing theories of positivism and idealism.1 Voluntaristic theory integrates the essence of the other two approaches in a new paradigm and defines the limits of their validity. This insight, so decisive for the later development of action theory, will now be re-examined in the light of present-day voluntaristic action theory.
