Parsons' AGIL Scheme: Basic problems in his procedure of its formation

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  • パーソンズのAGIL図式: その形成における基本問題
  • パーソンズのAGIL図式
  • パーソンズのAGIL図式--その形成における基本的問題
  • パーソンズ ノ AGIL ズシキ ソノ ケイセイ ニ オケル キホンテキ モン
  • Parsons' AGIL Scheme

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If the AGIL scheme is to be a significant framework in the comparative analysis of social structures, the dimensions proposed by the scheme must be analytically independent of one another and exhaustive. To prove this, Parsons has taken three different methods: (1) generalization of Bales' four system problems through the experimental study of small groups, (2) the combination of pattern variables, (3) deduction of dimensions by crossing the two axes, internal-external and instrumental-consummatory, He seems to finally adopt the third. It is difficult to suppose, however, that either one of them by itself can give a clear basis to the scheme since each of them include several assumptions that have not been validated.<br>Taking the stand point that the all three methods are complementary, I will examine and re-construct the discussions in Working Papers in the Theory of Action with special reference to the second method, which has not been well discussed in the past. And then I will clarify that he assumes (a) that his pattern-variable scheme is already established, (b) that an act is not multi-functional, and (c) that the affinities between cirtain pattern variables are intense enough to be distinguished from the other combinations, which I call “the hypothesis of affinities.”<br>Parsons himself is not clearly conscious of this hypothesis. But it occupies a very important place in his logical procedure, because it opens the way to the emperical verification of the scheme. That the AGIL scheme contains this hypothesis is a notable charactristic of his theory based on the “action theory.”

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