ABSTRACT
In chapter 2, I argued that SSA was the book of somebody who thought he was reconciling positivism and idealism but whose actual problematic was utilitarianism in general and the classical economists' account of the rise of capitalism in particular. His voluntaristic theory, I argued, was not a reconciliation of positivism and idealism. Another problem for Parsons' voluntaristic theory, which was raised in chapter 2, was his treatment of economic rationality and common values. By seeing them as emergent properties, he does not integrate them theoretically into his unit act framework. The last five chapters have dealt with his action programme which focuses on the subjective meaning of actions and is in the idealist tradition. The core case of this programme is the institutionalized ego-alter interaction which can be seen as developing out of the unit act framework. This chapter focuses on the aspects of Parsons' work that developed from the other sides of these unresolved problems in SSA - positivism and ‘emergent’ properties.
