ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that the concept of 'value generalization', a concept that has been developed in one of the most ambitious sociological theories of social change is of considerable importance for moral philosophy and therefore hopefully also for those interested in business and economic ethics. Talcott Parsons, the American sociologist of the 1950s and 1960s, is fully aware that value generalization can only be conceived of as a process, and he has interesting things to say about the stages and the character of this process. In an auto biographical statement he qualifies his understanding of value generalization 'as the mode of change required to complete such a phase for the system, if it is to have the prospect of future viability'. While the concept of value generalization obviously has its pitfalls in the study of social change, it seems to me a highly valuable concept for the study of communication about values.
