developed the pattern variables. He saw inadequacies in them so he developed the functional
system problems. In his book “Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory,”(1977) he
states that what he has concerned himself with in the social field relates to concerns found in the
biological sciences, linguistics, psychology, political science, and social anthropology. With this
relation he saw “a very fruitful interaction.” It is, perhaps, with this interaction that a theory will
warrant the word “grand” in front of it.
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