ABSTRACT
Introduction Many twentieth-century American and European accounts of Talcott Parsons’s writings have traditionally concentrated on the rational ideas and concepts which provide the foundation for both his early and later action frame of reference.1 This emphasis is understandable, particularly given Parsons’s own strong interest in the professionalisation of sociology as a scientific discipline and his cognitive breakdown of those elements that comprise unit acts. Both of these reflect his commitment, dating from the mid-1930s, to preserve the importance of reason and rationality (Parsons, 1945, 1937). It is not surprising then that so many later commentators should study Parsons almost purely in terms of those rational concepts and insights, which he uses to cast light on Western institutions and social life generally.
