This chapter sets out to provide a balanced assessment of Niklas Luhmann's evaluation of Talcott Parsons's sociological theory, and present it in some detail, in order to illuminate Luhmann's own oeuvre against the backdrop provided by his evaluations. The chapter pursues a further goal. The interpreters of Parsons and Luhmann agree on the existence of fundamental theoretical differences between the two authors. These differences will be here assessed with reference to this secondary literature on Luhmann's reception of Parsons. As will be shown, Luhmann frequently praises Parsons, but qualifies his appreciation with major reservations. The presence of both praise and criticism in Luhmann's theoretical statements makes the task of providing such a balanced assessment especially difficult. Reference will be made here particularly, but not exclusively, to those of Luhmann's works that couch his theory in general and introductory terms. Examples are taken not only from some of Luhmann's early and seminal articles on the functional method and system theory but also from some of his more recent references to Parsons in the two-volume Theory of Society. In addition, Luhmann's observations on modernity and his Introduction to Systems Theory contain theoretically relevant references to Parsons. Less attention will be paid to those writings of Luhmann that deal with particular aspects of his theory, such as art, organizations, religion, education, risk, trust, the mass media or love. Luhmann's frequent objections to Parsons's theory in conjunction with his appreciative observations will be the focus of this chapter.

Luhmann's Ambivalent Appraisal of Parsons's Theoretical

Legacy: Parsons's Merits

This section presents comments and evaluations concerning Parsons that Luhmann has made. Luhmann's appreciation of Parsons is clearly stated several times. For example, in his judgment, Parsons was “one of the great theory architects” and the author of the only systematic sociological theory currently in existence. Parsons has also called attention, correctly from Luhmann's point of view, to the necessity of conceiving actions only in the context of their reciprocal relations. He had, moreover, “a ground-breaking intuition” when he formulated his general theory of the action system. In addition to the “considerable historical and evolutionary openness” of his theory, Parsons's achievements have revealed “all that can be achieved by means of this theory pattern,” its consequences and its differences from other theory patterns.