George Herbert Mead: A Unifying Theory For Sociology

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD A Unifying Theory for Sociology John D. Baldwin Masters of Social Theory Volume 6 Cover Photo: Historical Picture Service SAGE PUBLICATIONS The Publishers of Professional Social Science Newbury Park Beverly Hills London New Delhi For Richard Golden 1947-1985 a person who cared about the important things and led his life accordingly Copyright © 1986 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: SAGE Publications, Inc. 275 South Beverly Drive Beverly Hills, California 90212 SAGE Publications Inc. 2111 West Hillcrest Drive Newbury Park California 91320 SAGE Publications Ltd. 28 Banner Street London EC1Y 8QE England SAGE PUBLICATIONS India Pvt. Ltd. M-32 Market Greater Kailash 1 New Delhi 110 048 India Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baldwin, John D., 1941George Herbert Mead: a unifying theory for sociology. (Masters of social theory; v. 6) Bibliography: p. 1. Mead, George Herbert, 1963-1931. 2. Sociology— United States. I. Title. II. Series. HM22.U6M373 1986 301´.092´4 85-30249 ISBN 0-8039-2821-X ISBN 0-8039-2820-1 (pbk.) FIRST PRINTING Contents Series Editors’ Introduction 4 Preface 1 Introduction Mead’s Life 5 6 6 Part I Philosophical Foundations 13 2 Pragmatism 14 A Scientific Philosophy 15 Provisional Truth 19 3 Mead’s Unified Worldview 23 Mead’s Scientific Cosmology 23 Beyond Dualism 29 4 Mead’s Method 36 Process Philosophy 37 Objective Psychology 46 Part II Mead’s Unified Theory 49 5 The Biological Individual Evolution Behavior 6 Language and Intelligence Animal Communication The Meaning of Gestures The Vocal Gesture Significant Symbols Conversation and Inner Conversation Consciousness Reflective Intelligence 50 51 54 69 70 72 74 76 81 82 84 7 Socialization and Role Taking The Child’s World Is a Social World Awareness of Physical Objects Language and Role Taking Play and Role-Play Games Role Taking After Childhood 8 The Self and Society Nondualism Emergence of Self Structure The “I” and the “Me” 9 Macro Theory: General Social Evolution Ecology 10 Macro Theory: Specifics Punitive Justice Social Organization Part III The Past and the Future 11 A Unifying Theory for the Social Sciences Notes References About the Author 89 89 92 93 95 98 102 106 107 108 112 115 123 124 132 136 137 140 153 154 158 165 168 Series Editor’s Introduction In this sixth volume of the Sage Masters of Social Theory series, John Baldwin offers an original analysis of George Herbert Mead’s thought. For too long, I think, Mead’s important ideas have been interpreted as primarily “social psychological.” True, Mead’s famous course on social psychology at the University of Chicago became enshrined with the posthumous publication of Mind, Self, and Society, and to this day, the ideas in this classic work constitute the basic core of our knowledge about the process of interaction. To have unlocked the mysteries of such a fundamental process is, of course, a substantial intellectual accomplishment, as Baldwin explores in Chapters 6, 7, and 8. Yet, Mead accomplished much more, For Mead was a philosopher who had a grand vision that typically is ignored in analyses of his thought. Indeed, Baldwin rightly reminds us that we cannot appreciate fully the power of Mead’s analyses of “mind, self, and society” without placing his ideas on interaction into a larger intellectual context. Baldwin has summarized this broader vision in Mead’s work; and he has gone so far as to view it