Relationships of structure and agency in the view of Allameh Mohammad Taghi Jafari

The present paper is to look at the works of Allameh Mohammad Taghi Jafari (RA) (1923 - 1998); who is regarded as one of the most prominent thinkers and intellectuals of Iran's scientific legacy[t1], in a different way from the prevailing European views and tries to constitute a systematic framework of his attitudes on the issue of the relationship between structure and agency. This enterprise has been recognized as one of the most important issues in the field of sociology mainly arguable in the realm of social ontology. In this paper, by referring to his works it is initially tried to explore, articulate and develop Allameh Jafari's views and thoughts and then with a comprehensive outlook to all of his works it is attempted to infer sociological implications relating to this issue. Finally his precise theory would be explained by gathering its components which seems to be disseminated in Jafari's works. This research has a descriptive-analytical approach. It seems that Jafari has a dualist view to the issue of structure and agency. This means that his remarks do not entail any general rule about all structures and all agencies. He believes that every person is brought into existence with a preliminary nature and outside the chain of deterministic causes. In one hand, these basic features can bring a unique identity for each person and grant him/her an independent personality. On the other hand, people as social actors do not grow in a vacuum, but after the birth, will be affected by natural and environmental factors, pre-formed social structures and even particular instincts and his/her natural self. The type of individual life and how to deal with these influential sources determine the supremacy of the action or the supremacy of social structures.