Academic dispute or clash of commitments?: The Schutz-Parsons exchange reconsidered.

The article discusses the essay "The Theory of Social Action in the Schutz-Parsons Debate," by Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab. The paper describes that in an age in which academics tend to confine themselves to familiar and predictable patterns of discourse, it is refreshing to return to an era in which searching discussion about foundational issues was not only possible, but eagerly carried out. The Parsons-Schutz "debate", which took place over a brief span a little more than fifty years ago, is notable as an exchange of this kind. The reasons are not difficult to deduce. Those working within human studies--particularly in Germany--have shown considerably more interest. But perhaps feeling that they have learned what is possible from the debate, they have moved on to other matters. More generally, with the demise of the sociology of knowledge and the philosophy of the social sciences, and the resurgence of positivism and applied quantitative approaches, less attention has been given in recent years to issues concerning the foundations of the social sciences.