Talcott Parsons

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Talcott Parsons : biography

December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979

In 1932 Parsons bought his famous farmhouse in New Hampshire for $2.500. The farmhouse was located in a wooden area near the small town of Acworth, although Parsons often in his writing referred to it as "the farmhouse in Alstead." The farmhouse was not big and impressive; indeed, it was a very humble structure with almost no modern utilities. The farmhouse became central to Parsons’ life, and many of his most important works were written in the peace and quiet at the farmhouse.

In the spring of 1933, Susan Kingsbury, a pioneer of women’s rights in America, wrote to Parsons and offered him a position at Bryn Mawr; however, Parsons declined the offer because, as he wrote to Kingsbury, "neither salary nor rank is really definitely above what I enjoy here."Letter from Talcott Parsons to Susan Kingsbury, April 15, 1933. Talcott Parsons Collection. Harvard University Archives.

In the academic year of 1939-40 Talcott Parsons and Joseph Schumpeter conducted an informal faculty seminar at Harvard, which met in Emerson Hall and discussed the concept of rationality. Among the participants in the seminary were D.V. McGranahan, Abram Bergson, Wassily Leontief, Gottfried Haberler, and Paul Sweezy. Schumpeter contributed with the essay "Rationality in Economics" to the seminar, while Parsons submitted the paper "The Role of Rationality in Social Action" for a general discussion.See, Robert Loring Allen, Opening Doors: The Life and Work of Joseph Schumpeter Vol 2: America. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1991. p. 98. An edited version of Schumpeter’s paper to the seminary was published in Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft. Vol.140. no.4. December 1984: 577–93. Schumpeter suggested that he and Parsons write or edit a book together on the topic of rationality but the project never materialized.

Neoclassical economics versus institutionalists

In the prevailing discussion between neoclassical economics and the institutionalists, which was one of the conflicts that prevailed within the field of economics in the 1920s and early 1930s, Parsons attempted to walk a very fine line. He was basically very critical about neo-classical theory and this was an attitude that prevailed all the way through his life and is reflected in his critique of Milton Friedman and Gary Becker. He was basically opposed to the utilitarian bias within the neo-classical approach not in the sense that he discredited everything they said but to the effect that he could not embrace them fully. However, he agreed generally (or at least up to a point) on their theoretical and methodological style of approach (which should be discriminated from its substance). For the same reasons (and for several other reasons in addition) he was unable to accept the institutionalist solution. In an interview late in life Parsons recalled his conversation with Joseph Schumpeter about the institutionalist methodological position, the following way: "An economist like Schumpeter, by contrast, would absolutely have none of that. I remember talking to him about the problem and … I think Schumpeter was right. If economics had gone that way [like the institutionalists] it would have had to become a primarily empirical discipline, largely descriptive, and without theoretical focus. That’s the way the ‘institutionalists’ went, and of course Mitchell (Wesley Mitchell) was affiliated with that movement."Martin U. Martel, Dialogues with Parsons. Transcript, 1975.

Revisit to Germany and fight against Nazism

Parsons revisited Germany in the summer of 1930 and became a direct eye-witness to the feverish atmosphere in Weimar Germany during which the Nazi Party rose to power. In the following period Parsons received constant reports about the rise of Nazism through his friend Edward Y. Hartshorne who was travelling in Germany. Parsons began in the late 1930s to warn the American public about the Nazi threat; this was not an easy task since US in those days was predominantly isolationist.