A Dubious Distinction? An Inquiry into the Value and Use of Merton's Concepts of Manifest and Latent Function
探究默顿的显性功能与隐性功能概念为何在教科书里被推崇却很少用于实际研究，识别了该区分的四种含义及其根本缺陷，对功能主义与解释性方法的结合问题有启发。
While the concepts of manifest and latent function are commonly described in textbooks as valuable and important, they are rarely used in sociological research. Merton's originalformulation and discussion, together with subsequent criticism, is examined in the hope offending an explanation for this paradox. Four different meanings of the manifest-latent distinction are identified together with a widespread tendency to replace the contrast between purpose and consquence with that between commonsense knowledge and sociological understanding. This practice is, in turn, related to an inability to accommodate normative and idealistic behavior into the scheme, a fundamental weakness which stems from its character as an unintegrated product of functionalism and action theory. This insight leads into a discussion of some of the larger problems surrounding the juxtaposition of an interpretative, phenomenological approach with that of functionalism and, while recognizing that there is a real need for such a unified perspective, concludes that Merton's manifest and latent function distinction does not meet it.