Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)

WHEN TALCOTT PARSONS, Professor of Sociology Emeritus, died last week in Munich at the age of 76, an era in the history of sociology drew to a close. In a distinguished career of nearly half a century, Parsons, the first chairman of Harvard's Department of Social Relations, established sociology as a legitimate academic discipline that was simultaneously systematic and broad-ranging in scope. Through his translation of the German sociologist Max Weber's Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft [The Theory of Social and Economic Organization], and, later, through the development of his own "structural-functional" theory, Parsons sought to provide scholars with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to understand the workings of human societies.

In recent years Parsons, one of the fathers of American sociology, had suffered the assaults of an Oedipal rebellion. Many young sociologists found Marx's explicitly revolutionary analysis of modern capitalist social relations more appealing than Parson's more abstract, apolotical--and therefore, it seemed, inherently conservative--theory. Critics characterized Parson's convoluted prose style as opaque and his analyses as suggestive but inadequate, if not simply incorrect.

Perhaps much of Parson's work will, like that of so many other scholars, eventually be superseded. Nevertheless, his contribution to the field of sociology and to other disciplines that seek to understand human relations will remain undiminished. The Crimson extends its deepest sympathy to Parsons' family and friends.