George Herbert Mead
The self is not given at birth but emerges as we learn to see ourselves through the eyes of others in social interaction.
Placement
The self emerges from social interaction: the “I” and the “Me.”
Key ideas
- I and Me
- Significant symbols
- Symbolic interactionism (named by his student Blumer)
Teachers: Wilhelm Dilthey
Students: Herbert Blumer
Influence
Influenced by 6
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
influenced by
Mead lectured on Hegel in Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1936); A. Honneth reads his social self as a naturalised version of Hegel’s recognition (1992). G. H. Mead, Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1936); A. Honneth, Kampf um Anerkennung (1992); SEP “George Herbert Mead”
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831
Charles Darwin
influenced by
Mead started his account of the ‘conversation of gestures’ from Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions (1872), reading gestures socially rather than as expression (Mind, Self, and Society, 1934). G. H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (1934); C. Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872); SEP “George Herbert Mead”
Evidence: AI draft
Charles Darwin › 1809–1882
Wilhelm Wundt
influenced by ✓
During his study in Germany (1888–91) Mead immersed himself in Wundt’s research and took over his account of the gesture. SEP “George Herbert Mead” (M. Aboulafia, S. Taylor), §1 and §2
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Wilhelm Wundt › 1832–1920
Wilhelm Dilthey studied with
studied with
Mead took two courses with Dilthey during his study in Germany. SEP “George Herbert Mead” (M. Aboulafia, S. Taylor), §1
Evidence: AI draft
Wilhelm Dilthey › 1833–1911
William James
influenced by
Mead met William James at Harvard in 1887–88 and tutored his son, but did not study with him; his distinction between the “I” and the “me” takes up James’s analysis of the self in The Principles of Psychology (1890). SEP “George Herbert Mead”; W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), ch. 10; G. H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (1934)
Evidence: AI draft
William James › 1842–1910
John Dewey
influenced by
Mead, Dewey’s colleague in Michigan and Chicago from 1891, built on Dewey’s critique of the reflex arc (1896) in developing his theory of the social act. J. Dewey, “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” (1896); G. H. Mead, The Philosophy of the Act (1938); SEP “George Herbert Mead”
Evidence: AI draft
John Dewey › 1859–1952
Influenced 7
Herbert Blumer taught
taught
Blumer studied with Mead at Chicago (PhD 1928) and took over his course in social psychology in 1931, when Mead fell ill; he coined the term ‘symbolic interactionism’ (1937) for the approach he drew from Mead. H. Blumer, Symbolic Interactionism (1969), ch. 1
Evidence: AI draft
Herbert Blumer › 1900–1987
C. Wright Mills
influenced
Mills drew on Mead’s social behaviourism to treat motives as socially learned vocabularies that actors use in situations (‘Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive’, 1940). C. W. Mills, “Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive”, American Sociological Review 5 (1940); H. Gerth and C. W. Mills, Character and Social Structure (1953)
Evidence: AI draft
C. Wright Mills › 1916–1962
Erving Goffman
influenced disputed
How far Goffman drew on Mead is disputed: he is often counted a symbolic interactionist, but commentators stress his debts to Durkheim and Simmel (Presentation of Self, 1956). E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956; 1959); T. Burns, Erving Goffman (1992); G. Smith, Erving Goffman (2006); SEP “George Herbert Mead”
Evidence: AI draft
Erving Goffman › 1922–1982
Thomas Luckmann
influenced ✓
With Berger, Luckmann took over Mead’s account of socialisation through significant others and the ‘generalized other’, internalising society’s roles and norms (The Social Construction of Reality, 1966). P. L. Berger and T. Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality (1966); G. H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (1934); SEP “George Herbert Mead”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Thomas Luckmann › 1927–2016
Peter L. Berger
influenced
Berger grounded his view of identity as socially bestowed, sustained and transformed in Mead’s account of the self formed by taking others’ roles (Invitation to Sociology, 1963). P. L. Berger, Invitation to Sociology (1963), “Society in Man”; SEP “George Herbert Mead”
Evidence: AI draft
Peter L. Berger › 1929–2017
Jürgen Habermas
influenced ✓
Habermas saw in Mead’s theory of symbolically mediated interaction the paradigm shift from purposive to communicative action (Theory of Communicative Action, 1981). J. Habermas, Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns (1981), vol. II, “Der Paradigmenwechsel bei Mead und Durkheim”; G. H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (1934)
Jürgen Habermas › 1929–2026
Axel Honneth
influenced ✓
Honneth read Mead’s social psychology as a naturalistic transformation of the young Hegel’s theory of recognition, grounding self-relation in the perspective of others (Kampf um Anerkennung, 1992). A. Honneth, Kampf um Anerkennung (1992); G. H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (1934); SEP “Recognition”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Axel Honneth › b. 1949
Works
The self emerges by taking the role of the other.
Position
Mead explained how the self arises in social interaction. We are not born with a self; we acquire it by learning to take the attitude of others towards ourselves – first in play, when the child takes on individual roles, then in the game, when it grasps the rules of the whole group, the “generalised other”. Language, as a system of significant symbols, makes this possible. Within the self Mead distinguished the spontaneous, creative “I” from the “me”, the internalised attitudes of the community. His ideas became the basis of symbolic interactionism in sociology and influenced Habermas and Honneth.
Life & context
Mead studied at Oberlin and Harvard and spent several years in Leipzig and Berlin. From 1894 until his death he taught at the University of Chicago alongside Dewey. He published little in his lifetime; his main works were compiled by his students from lecture notes after his death.
Further main works
- The Philosophy of the Present (1932)
- Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1936)
- The Philosophy of the Act (1938)
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