Letter exchange regarding the seminar and plans for publication
pp. 247-264
in: Helmut Staubmann, Victor Lidz (eds), Rationality in the social sciences, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
In January of 1940, Talcott Parsons sent two letters to Alfred Schütz to invite Schütz and then make arrangements for Schütz to present to the Harvard Seminar on Rationality. After some delay in arranging a mutually convenient date, Schütz presented to the seminar in April. Additional correspondence concerns the plan to publish papers from the seminar along with some additional papers by colleagues who had participated in discussions but not presented. Parsons sent letters to the economists John Dunlop, Paul Sweezy, and Gottfried Haberler as well as the sociologist Wilbert Moore. He received return letters from Sweezy and Haberler indicating that they would not submit contributions and exchanged additional letters with Moore about the paper he did submit. A letter from Schumpeter reports his progress on a draft version of his essay. A letter to Donald McGranahan describes a discussion between Schumpeter and Parsons on making a second effort to collect papers from seminal participants after few papers were received by the original suggested deadline.
