Thesis ID: CBB001561350

Ethics and Interaction: The Democratic Origins of George Herbert Mead's Social Psychology (2007)

unapi

Smith, Anthony Woodruff (Author)


Harvard University
Kloppenberg, James


Publication Date: 2007
Edition Details: Advisor: Kloppenberg, James
Physical Details: 245 pp.
Language: English

This dissertation investigates the convergence of ethical ideas and social psychology in the work of the American philosopher George Herbert Mead (1863- 1931), who spent most of his career at the University of Chicago. Mead's concept of the "social self" has figured centrally in the history of sociological theory, although it has usually been understood apart from the philosophical contexts in which he worked. By situating Mead in relation to his animating ethical concerns, this dissertation contributes to the literature on progressive-era democratic thought and helps to clarify Mead's important place in the history of moral philosophy and the social sciences. Many late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theorists aimed to overcome the individualism of previous generations of philosophers. The notion of the "social" pervaded their work. At the University of Chicago, the philosopher John Dewey's effort to construct a theory of deliberative democracy required a conceptualization of the self as inseparable from a world of other selves and yet still a unique individual. Mead filled this need through his social psychology. In doing so, he modernized Adam Smith's theory of sympathy, which had drawn renewed interest and criticism in the 1890s. Mead also formulated a democratic theory of social control, in which the cultivation of the social self facilitates the efforts of individuals to continually reconstruct shared ideas about the common good based upon the recognition of diverse interests and voices. By way of his analysis of communication, Mead formulated a social psychology inseparable from ethical life. His work in this area has played a significant role in the genesis of critical social theory. This dissertation focuses most closely on the emergence of Mead's innovative social-psychological ideas in the period before World War I. In addition to examining Mead's philosophical background, it places his theoretical efforts in relation to those of his contemporaries. It also provides analysis of Mead and Dewey's interests in social reform and educational theory. The concluding sections examine the interpretation of Mead's ideas in the decades after World War I.

...More

Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/10 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3285550.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561350/

Similar Citations

Article Silva, Filipe Carreira da; (2007)
G. H. Mead: A System in a State of Flux (/isis/citation/CBB000773661/)

Thesis Booth, Kelvin Jay; (2007)
Animal Mind, Human Mind: George H. Mead, Animality and the Evolution of Embodied Cognition (/isis/citation/CBB001561432/)

Article Quéré, Louis; (2010)
George Herbert Mead (/isis/citation/CBB001252104/)

Article Raymer, Emilie J.; (2013)
A Man of His Time: Thorstein Veblen and the University of Chicago Darwinists (/isis/citation/CBB001320625/)

Article Sensales, Gilda; Areni, Alessandra; Dal Secco, Alessandra; (2011)
Building the Boundaries of a Science: First Representations of Italian Social Psychology between 1875 and 1954 (/isis/citation/CBB001220673/)

Book Bernadette M. Baker; (2013)
William James, Sciences of Mind, and Anti-Imperial Discourse (/isis/citation/CBB795840950/)

Article Rodgers, Diane M.; (2013)
Insects, Instincts and Boundary Work in Early Social Psychology (/isis/citation/CBB001252832/)

Book Beer, Daniel; (2008)
Renovating Russia: The Human Sciences and the Fate of Liberal Modernity, 1880--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB000850348/)

Book Sklansky, Jeffrey; (2002)
The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820--1920 (/isis/citation/CBB000302281/)

Book Vogler, Candace A.; (2001)
John Stuart Mill's Deliberative Landscape: An Essay in Moral Psychology (/isis/citation/CBB000102439/)

Article Castro, Jorge; Lafuente, Enrique; Jiménez, Belén; (2009)
The Soul of Spain: Spanish Scholastic Psychology and the Making of Modern Subjectivity (1875--1931) (/isis/citation/CBB000931971/)

Article Welchman, Jennifer; (2006)
William James's “The Will to Believe” and the Ethics of Self-Experimentation (/isis/citation/CBB001023425/)

Article Cortuo, Esteban; (2010)
Mario Roso de Luna (1872--1931) Un ocultista peculiar (/isis/citation/CBB001201534/)

Book Da Silva, Filipe Carreira; (2007)
G. H. Mead: A Critical Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB000830453/)

Article Silva, Filipe Carreira da; (2006)
G. H. Mead in the History of Sociological Ideas (/isis/citation/CBB000671022/)

Authors & Contributors
Silva, Filipe Carreira da
Baker, Bernadette M.
Welchman, Jennifer
Vogler, Candace A.
Sklansky, Jeffrey P.
Sensales, Gilda
Concepts
Psychology
Social psychology
Sociology
Philosophy
Ethics
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
18th century
Places
United States
Spain
Russia
Italy
Europe
Chicago (Illinois, U.S.)
Institutions
University of Chicago
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment