¹ For the purposes of discussion social or behavioral science is understood as that knowledge enterprise whose subject matter includes that of psychology as well as that dealing with all adaptively behaving or purposively behaving systems or entities. It is primarily on these grounds that the contention is frequently bruited that explanation in the social sciences is characteristically “teleological” while explanation in the natural sciences is “causal.” The distinction, while cognitively useful, is not, as will be argued, substantive.

² Cf. Braithwaite, R. B., Scientific Explanation: A Study of the Function of Theory, Probability and Law in Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955), p. 22 Google Scholar; Rudner, R. S., Philosophy of Social Science (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966), p. 10.Google Scholar

³ Nagel, E., The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961), p. 90.Google Scholar This is an obvious simplification; cf. Suppes, P., “What is a Scientific Theory,” in Morgenbesser, S., Philosophy of Science Today (New York: Basic Books, 1967), pp. 55–67.Google Scholar

⁴ Cf. Zetterberg, H. L., On Theory and Verification in Sociology (3rd ed., Totowa, N. J.: Bedminster Press, 1965), pp. 157–174.Google Scholar

⁵ I have alluded to some of these shortcomings of classical Marxist social theory in Gregor, A. J., A Survey of Marxism: Problems in Philosophy and the Theory of History (New York: Random House, 1965), pp. 261–281.Google Scholar

⁶ Easton, D., A Framework for Political Analysis (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965), pp. 7f.Google Scholar

⁷ Partially formalized sciences feature partially formalized theories which are understood, minimally, to exhibit at least one purportedly deductive connection among their constituent propositions or which determine explicitly the use of at least one of their indigenous concepts.

⁸ Cf. Young, O. R., Systems of Political Science (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968), chaps. 2 and 3Google Scholar; Wiseman, H. V., Political Systems: Some Sociological Approaches (New York: Praeger, 1966)Google Scholar; Mitchell, W. C., Sociological Analysis and Politics: The Theories of Talcott Parsons (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967).Google Scholar

⁹ Merton, R. K., Social Theory and Social Structure (Revised and enlarged edition, Glencoe: The Free Press, 1957), pp. 6, 7, 9.Google Scholar

¹⁰ The most express criticism of functionalism in this regard is that of Mills, C. W., The Sociological Imagination (New York: Grove Press, 1961), pp. 25–49.Google Scholar Mills is not generally characterized as “objective,” but his criticisms about the language shift exemplified in Parsonian functionalism are generally well-taken. More urbane criticism of this sort is to be found in Black, M., “Some Questions about Parsons' Theories,” in Black, M. (ed.), The Social Theories of Talcott Parsons (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1961), pp. 279 f.Google Scholar

¹¹ Haas, E., Beyond the Nation-State: Functionalism and International Organization (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), p. 5.Google Scholar

¹² Miller, J. G., “General Behavior Systems Theory,” in Chicago Behavioral Sciences Publications, No. 1. Profits and Problems of Homeostatic Models in Behavioral Sciences (Chicago: University of Chicago, n.d.), p. 5 Google Scholar; cf. Miller, J. G., “Toward a General Theory for the Behavioral Sciences,” The American Psychologist, 10 (1955), pp. 513–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. Grinker, R. R. (ed.), Toward a Unified Theory of Human Behavior (2nd ed., New York: Basic Books, 1967)Google Scholar, particularly “Introduction to the Second Edition.” The organismic thesis has found its way into political science literature in accounts of the following sort: “… Systems have made their appearance as a possible focus, beginning with the smallest cell in the human body as a system and working up through ever more inclusive systems such as the human being as an organism, the human personality, small groups, broader institutions, societies, and collections of societies, such as the international system”: Easton, op. cit., pp. 15f.

¹³ Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., Structure and Function in Primitive Society (London: Cohen and West, 1956), p. 178.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Spencer, R. F., “The Nature and Value of Functionalism in Anthropology,”, in Martindale, D. (ed.), Functionalism in the Social Sciences (Philadelphia: The American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 1965), p. 2 Google Scholar; cf. Evans-Pritchard, E. E., Social Anthropology and Other Essays (New York: The Free Press, 1964), pp. 54f.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Cf. Hempel, C., Aspects of Scientific Explanation (New York: The Free Press, 1965), p. 306.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Cf. Radcliffe-Brown, op. cit., p. 180.

¹⁷ Cf. Redfield, R., Tepoztian; A Mexican Village (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1930)Google Scholar; Redfield, R. and A. Rojas, Villa, Chan Kom: A Mayan Village (Carnegie Institution, Publication No. 448, Washington, D. C., 1934)Google Scholar; see also Martindale, D., The Nature and Types of Sociological Theory (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960), p. 92.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Cf. Nagel, op. cit., pp. 520–535, and Logic Without Metaphysics (New York: The Free Press, 1957), pp. 247–283; McEwen, W. P., The Problem of Social-Scientific Knowledge (Totowa: Bedminster, 1963), pp. 203–208.Google Scholar

¹⁹ For recent discussions see Seeliger, R., “Analogien und Modelle in der Physik,” Studium Generale (1948), I, 125–137 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Models and Analogues in Biology: Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, No. 14 (New York: Academic, 1960); Nagel, , The Structure of Science, pp. 107–117 Google Scholar; Hempel, op. cit., pp. 433–447.

²⁰ Cf. Rex, J., Key Problems of Sociological Theory (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), pp. 61–77.Google Scholar

²¹ Cf. Rumney, J., Herbert Spencer's Sociology (New York: Atherton, 1966), chap. 2.Google Scholar

²² Johnson, C., Revolutionary Change (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966), p. 49.Google Scholar

²³ This is of course not true of the best organicists. One need only refer to theorists as sophisticated as Gini, Corrado, Organismo e società (Rome: Ilardi, 1960)Google Scholar, to be disabused of the conviction that organicists are all simple-minded. Cf. Marotta, M., Organicismo e neo organicismo (Milan: Giuffrè, 1959).Google Scholar

²⁴ Cf. Pareto, V., I sistemi socialisti (Turin: UTET, 1951), pp. 285f.Google Scholar

²⁵ Buckley, W., Sociology and Modern Systems Theory (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967), pp. 4f., 13–15.Google Scholar

²⁶ Easton, op. cit., p. 25.

²⁷ Kaplan, M. A., “Systems Theory,” in Charlesworth, J. C. (ed.), Contemporary Political Analysis (New York: Free Press, 1967), p. 154.Google Scholar

²⁸ Cf. T. Parsons, “Power, Party and System,” and Easton, D., “An Approach to the Analysis of Political Systems,” in Ulmer, S. S. (ed.), Introductory Readings in Political Behavior (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1961), pp. 128, 140.Google Scholar

²⁹ Easton, , Framework, p. 2 Google Scholar; Landau, M., “On the Use of Metaphor in Political Analysis,” Social Research, 28 (1961), p. 353.Google Scholar

³⁰ Cf. Black, M., Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1962), pp. 219–243 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; DiRenzo, G. J., “Toward Explanation in the Behavioral Sciences,” in DiRenzo, G. J. (ed.), Concepts, Theory and Explanation in the Behavioral Sciences (New York: Random House, 1966), p. 248 Google Scholar; Wilier, D., Scientific Sociology: Theory and Method (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967), chap. 3Google Scholar; Brodbeck, M., “Models, Meaning and Theories,” in Gross, L. (ed.), Symposium on Sociological Theory (New York: Harper and Row, 1959), pp. 373–403.Google Scholar

³¹ Easton, , “An Approach …,” op. cit., p. 137.Google Scholar

³² Cf. Buck, R. C., “On the Logic of General Behavior Systems Theory,” Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Edited by Feigl, H. and Scriven, M.. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1956), 1, 223–232.Google Scholar

³³ Suppes, P., “A Comparison of the Meaning and Uses of Models in Mathematics and the Empirical Sciences,” in Freudenthal, H. (ed.), The Concept and Role of the Model in Mathematics and Natural and Social Sciences (New York: Gordon and Breach, 1961), pp. 436f.Google Scholar

³⁴ Easton, D., A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: Wiley, 1965), p. 9.Google Scholar

³⁵ Berghe, P. van den, South Africa, A Study in Conflict (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

³⁶ Easton, , A Systems Analysis, op. cit., p. 21.Google Scholar

³⁷ Cf. Bottomore, T. B., Sociology: A Guide to Problems and Literature (London: Unwin, 1962), pp. 39f.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ritchie, A. D., Scientific Method (Paterson: Littlefield and Adams, 1960), pp. 61f.Google Scholar

³⁹ Cf. Hempel, op. cit., pp. 438f.

⁴⁰ For an explication of the meanings of “function” as employed by functionalists, cf. Nagel, , Structure of Science, pp. 522–525.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Young, op. cit., p. 28; Kaplan, , “Systems Theory,” op. cit., pp. 150–155.Google Scholar

⁴² Easton, , “An Approach …,” op. cit., p. 138.Google Scholar

⁴³ Cf. Hempel, op. cit., pp. 297–330; Rudner, op. cit., pp. 107–111; Brown, R., Explanation in Social Science (Chicago: Aldine, 1963), p. 110.Google Scholar This is generally recognized by political scientists. Cf. Runciman, W. G., Social Science and Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), p. 113 Google Scholar; Dyke, V. Van, Political Science: A Philosophical Analysis (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960), pp. 32f.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Spiro, H. J., “An Evaluation of Systems Theory,” in Charlesworth, , op. cit., p. 173.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Cf. Peters, R. S., The Concept of Motivation (New York: Humanities Press, 1958), pp. 19f.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Rudner, op. cit., p. 108.

⁴⁷ Brown, op. cit., p. 110.

⁴⁸ Eastern, D., “Categories for the Systems Analysis of Politics,” in Easton, D. (ed.) Varieties of Political Theory (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966), p. 154.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Jarvie, I. C., “Limits to Functionalism and Alternatives to it in Anthropology,” in Martindale, , Functionalism in the Social Sciences, op. cit. pp. 18f.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ W. Flanigan and E. Fogelman, “Functionalism in Political Science,” Ibid., p. 125

⁵¹ Ackerman, C. and Parsons, T., “The Concept of ‘Social System’ as a Theoretic Device,” in DiRenzo, , op. cit., pp. 25–29.Google Scholar

⁵² Ibid., p. 39f.

⁵³ Parsons, T., The Social System (New York: Free Press, 1964), p. 3.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Parsons refers to his systematizations on the one hand as “analytically descriptive” and yet elsewhere talks vaguely of “one of the primary tests” his “theoretical scheme” must meet as “usefulness in prediction.” Parsons, T., “An Approach to Psychological Theory in Terms of the Theory of Action,” in Koch, S. (ed.), Psychology: A Study of a Science (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959), pp. 699, 694.Google Scholar This confusion between analytic conceptual schemata and theoretical linguistic entities seems to afflict functionalists and systems theorists generally. Easton speaks of the “new theories” of contemporary political science as “analytic, not substantive” and yet in the same sentence characterizes them as “explanatory”: Easton, , Framework, op. cit., p. 22.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Parsons, T., et al., Toward a General Theory of Action (New York: Harper and Row, 1951), p. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁶ Parsons, , “An Approach …,” op. cit., p. 645.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Parsons, , et. al., Toward a General Theory of Action, op. cit., p. 3.Google Scholar

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⁵⁹ Cf. Offer, D. and Sabshin, M., Normality (New York: Basic Books, 1966), p. 19 Google Scholar and passim.

⁶⁰ Parsons, T., “The Superego and the Theory of Social Systems,” in Parsons, T., Bales, R. and Shils, E., Working Papers in the Theory of Action (New York: Free Press, 1963). p. 16.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Mandler, G. and Kessen, W., The Language of Psychology (New York: Wiley, 1959), pp. 242f.Google Scholar

⁶² “… Parsons' principles are close to the level of proverbial wisdom. Now it is characteristic of proverbs, and one reason for their use as a substitute for precise thought, that they embody ambiguities making them indefinitely adaptable to almost any circumstances”: Black, , “Some Questions …,” op. cit., p. 280.Google Scholar