ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНАЯ ШКОЛА В СОЦИОЛОГИИ
Functional School in Sociology
Anti-Marxist Distortions
Criticizes one school while legitimizing bourgeois sociology as science.
A school in contemporary sociology of the USA (R. Merton, T. Parsons, P. Sorokin). The Functional School regards society as a single, interconnected social system, each element of which performs a definite function. The basic feature of such a system is the interaction of its components and the absence of a single determining basis. But actually the determining part of the system, according to this school, consists of "spiritual values", above all religion, as an element of the system discharging a necessary social function.
The ideas of Functional School are a reaction to the empiricism of contemporary American sociology. On the other hand, the functional explanation of the social system is counterposed to Marxist social science. The Functional School is metaphysical, anti-historical, and idealist. It recognises equilibrium in the social system, denies the concept of the historical process, and claims that conflicts in capitalist society are ruled out.
Функциональная школа
В музыке, см. Музыковедение.