Cinta de Moebio: Revista de Epistemología de Ciencias Sociales

Fraga, E. (2018) La disputa epistemológica contra el empirismo y la propuesta de la teorización sistemática. Cinta moebio 61: 28-40. doi: 10.4067/S0717-554X2018000100028

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The dispute against empiricism and the proposal of systematic theorization

Eugenia Fraga (euge.fraga@hotmail.com) Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina) ORCID: 0000-0003-0102-2431

Abstract

In this essay we will rely on some of the key writings of Talcott Parsons, especially with regards to his epistemological dispute against empiricism, to show his own inconsistencies and go beyond him in proposing a new form of theoretical work for the social sciences: systematic and dynamic-structuralist theorizing, as distinct from functional-structural systemic theory. The main idea is to transcend the representationalist and anti-theoretical positions in favour of a view of theory open to criticism and self-criticism. In this way, and against those outlooks that confuse the different dimensions of the empirical-metaphysical continuum without giving them their relative analytic autonomy, that think in terms of functions and systems when talking about models of society, that consider each concept to be a representation of the social world, and that believe theories can be closed for good, our own outlook seeks to distinguish dimensions, complement plural traditions, and stay open to external critique and self-criticism.

Key words: Parsons, theory, system, structure, function, critique.