PARSONS WILL PRESENT NEW SOCIOLOGY COURSE

Talcott Parsons, associate professor of Sociology, announced yesterday that he will give a new course next year entitled "Economics and the Social Structure."

According to Professor Parsons, the new course, Sociology 6c, will take the conceptual scheme of modern economic theory as its starting point. Stress will be laid on the extent to which economic theory is an abstract conceptual scheme which must be related in its action to other elements in society.

Explains Relationships

Students who have felt the inadequacy of purely economic laws and analyses in explaining social action will have ample opportunity to find just what relation economic factors play to the workings of society.

In addition economic institutions, property and market, occupational roles, and the relation of the institutional structure of authority in the occupational sphere to social stratification will be treated.

The course will wind up with a consideration of the problem of motivation. Parsons believes that the traditional economic doctrine of self-interest is now untenable. He will attempt to analyze all the elements which enter into motivation in economic activities, emphasizing that self-interest is only one factor.

The course will meet Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays during the second half-year at 10 o'clock.