Merton was extremely particular about paradigm, as paradigm contains the minimum set of concepts without which the sociologist cannot adequately carry out a functional analysis.
A paradigm for functional analysis therefore helps to make clear how to conduct functional analysis, what to emphasize upon and how to locate one’s analysis in the ideological struggle between conservatism and radicalism. A functional analyst should not assume that her or his task is to focus only on the static aspects of social structure and neglect the study of structural change in society.
Functional alternatives are possible. Not everything is functional. Dysfunction it, according to Merton, implies the concept of strain, stress and tension on the structural level and, therefore, provide an analytical approach to the study of dynamics and change. As functional analysis has no ideological commitment, it all depends on how you do your analysis and how you want to use it. For example one can take caste as functional and dysfunctional. That’s why, Merton argues, functional analysis has no intrinsic commitment to any ideological position.
Merton argues, that distinction between latent and manifest function helps us to go beyond the common sense perception of the world. A notion like latent function opens our eyes, it enables us to see the deepers, hidden meaning of many of your social practices and cultural beliefs. In this fashion we are almost forced to alter the prevalent notion of ‘rationality’ and ‘irrationality’, ‘morality’ and ‘immorality’ that we had taken for granted.
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Merton has refuted the ideas of traditional functionalists. These postulates are postulates of functional unity, postulates of universal functionalism, and postulates of indispensability.