Talcott Parsons

1902–1979 · American sociologist (1902 – 1979)

Topics: complexity, learning

• 'System' is the concept that refers both to a complex of interdependencies between parts, components, and processes, that involves discernible regularities of relationships, and to a similar type of interdependency between such a complex and its surrounding environment.

  — Talcott Parsons

• The structure of a theoretical system tells us what alternatives are open in the possible answers to a given question. If observed facts of undoubted accuracy will not fit any of the alternatives it leaves open, the system itself is in need of reconstruction.

  — Talcott Parsons