The Tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology by Luigi Tomasi

Author:Luigi Tomasi [Tomasi, Luigi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781351881050
Google: qD63DwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 3563743
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1998-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

9

George Herbert Mead’s transformation of his intellectual context

ANTHONY J. BLASI

Introduction

George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) is usually described as an original thinker who made contributions to American pragmatic philosophy and symbolic interactionist sociology. However, a reading of his works brings one into dialogue with an array of thinkers who are neither pragmatic philosophers nor sociologists - Charles Darwin, Wilhelm Wundt, James Mark Baldwin, F.H. Bradley, Josiah Royce, Henri Bergson. It is true that William James, John Dewey, Charles S. Peirce, and Charles Horton Cooley also appear, but Mead’s thinking does not simply replicate that of these figures. Moreover, it is not only the symbolic interactionist school of sociology which turns to Mead for insights into theoretical methodology, but also sociologies having a phenomenological focus and social psychologies that use such concepts as the self-concept, role-taking, and reference group. Consequently, Mead’s own philosophical identity is ambiguous, while his impact in social science is diffuse.1

1 In general, I do not find many published commentaries on Mead helpful; however, I would be remiss if I did not note the excellent study by Hans Joas, G.H. Mead. A Contemporary Re-examination of his Thought (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1985), originally published in German as Praktische Intersubjektivität. Die Entwicklung des Werkes von George Herbert Mead (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp-Verlag, 1980). I am indebted to Harold Orbach, Mary Jo Deegan, and Virginia Olesen for helpful comments and suggestions.

I hope to place Mead’s thought into the context of his intellectual world and to draw out from the dialogue he conducted with that world the implications which are of most value in sociology. The focus is on his scholarly writing, not his civic involvements; such a focus is not intended to suggest any lack of importance on the part of these other dimensions of Mead’s life, but simply to keep the discussion within bounds.

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