Discuss positivistic assumptions in Parsons' functional analysis.
Answers
Beginning with Parsons and the functionalist approach to sociology we leave the classical sociologists – Marx, Weber, and Durkheim – and examine more recent sociological approaches. In Europe, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim developed the major theoretical approaches to an analysis of the social world. While they were not as comprehensive in their analysis of the social world as is contemporary sociology, these classical writers defined the discipline of sociology and developed models and methods which contemporary sociologists must consider. Contemporary sociologists have taken several lines of development. Some develop and update the ideas of classical sociology, while others combine ideas from several classical sociologists. Still others reject many of the classical approaches, but even here the ideas of classical sociology serve as a point of debate and departure.