Editing Talcott Parsons (section)

===Review of Piaget===
In 1976, Parsons was asked to contribute to a volume to celebrate the 80th birthday of [[Jean Piaget]]. Parsons contributed with an essay, "A Few Considerations on the Place of Rationality in Modern Culture and Society". Parsons characterized Piaget as the most eminent contributor to cognitive theory in the 20th century. However, he also argued that the future study of [[cognition]] had to go beyond its narrow encounter with [[psychology]] to aim at a higher understanding of how cognition as a human intellectual force was entangled in the processes of social and cultural institutionalization.<ref>Talcott Parsons, "A Few Considerations on the Place of Rationality in Modern Culture and Society". ''Revue européenne des sciences sociales.'' Tome XIV, No.38–39, 1976.</ref>

In 1978, when [[James Grier Miller]] published his famous work ''Living Systems'',<ref>James Grier Miller, ''Living Systems.'' New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.</ref> Parsons was approached by ''Contemporary Sociology'' to write a review article on Miller's work. Parsons had already complained in a letter to [[A. Hunter Dupree]]<ref>Letter from Talcott Parsons to A. Hunter Dupree, January 10, 1979. Talcott Parsons Collection. Harvard University Archives.</ref> that American intellectual life suffered from a deep-seated tradition of [[empiricism]] and saw Miller's book the latest confirmation of that tradition. In his review, "Concrete Systems and "Abstracted Systems",<ref>Talcott Parsons, "Review Essay: Concrete Systems and Abstracted Systems". ''Contemporary Sociology'' Vol.8, No.5, 1979. pp. 696–705.</ref> he generally praised the herculean task behind Miller's work but criticized Miller for getting caught in the effort of hierarchize concrete systems but underplay the importance of structural categories in [[theory building]]. Parsons also complained about Miller's lack of any clear distinction between cultural and non-cultural systems.