The Problem of Subjectivity in Schutz and Parsons

Abstract

Schutz and Parsons had fundamentally different conceptions of sociology that led them to quite different approaches to the problem of developing theory based on general concepts and having claims to universal validity but nevertheless incorporating the actor’s subjective point of view. Their treatments of this problem of subjectivity and the controversy that arose between them over this issue are examined in detail. In both cases, despite programmatic insistence to the contrary, the concrete subjective view of the actor ends up being treated as irrelevant to their systematic theories. It is suggested that the nature of general concepts in sociological inquiry must be reconsidered if the subjective view of the actor is to be retained as central to sociological inquiry.