Sorokin Hits Parsons' New Volume

In a seven page mimeographed document distributed to all members of the Social Relations faculty, Pitirim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, this week charged that parts of two new books by department chairman Talcott Parsons were "very similar" to a work he had written 30 years ago.

The books Sorokin referred to were "Toward a General Theory of Action," edited by Parsons and E. A. Shils, a University of Chicago professor, and "The Social System" by Parsons.

According to Sorokin's statement, "I was pleasantly surprised at finding the readings in some parts easy and feeling myself in these parts pasturing at very familiar grounds.... While there is a multitude of dissimilarities between two conceptual systems, there is hardly any doubt that the basic framework of the authors exhibits a notable resemblance to my framework," Sorokin wrote.

In seven subsequent pages, Sorokin listed point by point the "similarities in the basic, conceptual framework."

According to a statement he made to the CRIMSON last night. Sorokin was not angry. "My school is the integralist school," he said. "I have noticed in the last month that Professor Parsons has made a definite shift from the positions of Max Weber to mine. I only wish that he had credited me in the footnotes," he concluded.

In the mimeographed statement Sorokin stated that Parsons had not yet completed a "transition from his previous standpoint to the new one.