George Herbert Mead in the Twenty-First Century

Edited by F. Thomas Burke and Krzysztof Skowronski

This volume is composed of extended versions of selected papers presented at an international conference held in June 2011 at Opole University—the seventh in a series of annual American and European Values conferences organized by the Institute of Philosophy, Opole University, Poland. The papers were written independently with no prior guidelines other than the obvious need to address some aspect of George Herbert Mead’s work. While rooted in careful study of Mead’s original writings and transcribed lectures and the historical context in which that work was carried out, these papers have brought that work to bear on contemporary issues in metaphysics, epistemology, cognitive science, and social and political philosophy. There is good reason to classify Mead as one of the original classical American pragmatists (along with Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey) and consequently as a major figure in American philosophy. Nevertheless his thought has been marginalized for the most part, at least in academic philosophy. It is our intention to help recuperate Mead’s reputation among a broader audience by providing a small corpus of significant contemporary scholarship on some key aspects of his thought.

Lexington Books

Pages: 248 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-7597-2 • eBook • March 2013 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Pragmatism, Philosophy / Social, Social Science / Sociology / General, Philosophy / American Philosophy

George Herbert Mead in the Twenty-First Century

eBook

Summary

This volume is composed of extended versions of selected papers presented at an international conference held in June 2011 at Opole University—the seventh in a series of annual American and European Values conferences organized by the Institute of Philosophy, Opole University, Poland. The papers were written independently with no prior guidelines other than the obvious need to address some aspect of George Herbert Mead’s work. While rooted in careful study of Mead’s original writings and transcribed lectures and the historical context in which that work was carried out, these papers have brought that work to bear on contemporary issues in metaphysics, epistemology, cognitive science, and social and political philosophy. There is good reason to classify Mead as one of the original classical American pragmatists (along with Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey) and consequently as a major figure in American philosophy. Nevertheless his thought has been marginalized for the most part, at least in academic philosophy. It is our intention to help recuperate Mead’s reputation among a broader audience by providing a small corpus of significant contemporary scholarship on some key aspects of his thought.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 248 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-7597-2 • eBook • March 2013 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Pragmatism, Philosophy / Social, Social Science / Sociology / General, Philosophy / American Philosophy

Author

Krzysztof (Chris) Piotr Skowronski, PhD, teaches Contemporary Philosophy, Aesthetics, Cultural Anthropology, Polish Philosophy, and American Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Opole University, Poland. He co-organizes annual conferences on American and European Values. He authored books: Values and Powers. Re-reading the Philosophical Tradition of American Pragmatism (Rodopi in 2009) and Santayana and America. Values, Liberties, Responsibility (Cambridge Scholars 2007). He co-edited books: (with Matthew Flamm) Under Any Sky. Contemporary Readings of George Santayana (Cambridge Scholars 2007); (with Matthew Flamm and John Lachs) American and European Values: Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives (Cambridge Scholars 2008); (with Larry Hickman, Matthew Flamm and Jennifer Rea) The Continuing Relevance of John Dewey: Reflections of Aesthetics, Morality, Science, and Society (Rodopi 2011); (with Kelly Parker) Josiah Royce for the Twenty First Century (Lexington 2012); and (with Cornelis de Waal) The Normative Thought of Charles S. Peirce (Fordham, 2012).

F. Thomas Burke, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina, USA. Burke is the author of Dewey’s New Logic (University of Chicago Press, 1994), and What Pragmatism Was (Indiana University Press, 2013), and is co-editor (with Micah Hester and Robert Talisse) of Dewey’s Logical Theory: New Studies and Interpretations (Vanderbilt University Press, 2002).

Table of Contents

Preface
Foreword
Introduction: George Herbert Mead and the Chicago School of Pragmatism
Part One: General Themes and Assessments
George H. Mead as an Empirically Reasonable Philosopher: The “Philosophy of the Act” Reconsidered
Mead’s Understanding of Movements of Thought
The Concept of the Present and Historical Experience
Part Two: Mead and the Twentieth Century
The Relationality of Perspectives
The Concept of Rule-Following in the Philosophy of George Herbert Mead
Mead and the Bergson on Inner States, Self-Knowledge, and Expression
The Self as Naturally and Socially Embedded but Also as So Much More
Part Three: Mind, Self, and Social Psychology
Resolving Two Key Problems in Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society
Social-Psychological Externalism and the Coupling/Constitution Fallacy
Embodied Mind and the Mimetic Basis for Taking the Role of the Other
Games People Play: G. H. Mead’s Conception of Games and Play in a Contemporary Context
From Others to the Other: A psychoanalytical Reading of George Herbert Mead
Part Four: Social and Political Thought
George Herbert Mead on Social and Economic Human Rights
The Constitutive Role of Social Values and Political Power in G. H. Mead’s Reflections on Aesthetic Experience
George Herbert mead on the Social Bases of Democracy
Transforming Global Social Habits: G. H. Mead’s Pragmatist Contributions to Democratic Political Economy
Index
About the Contributors

Reviews

The reception of G.H.Mead's seminal ideas has gone through enormous ups and downs. Little known outside Chicago during his lifetime, he became, from the 1930s on, a classic of sociology through some of his posthumous publications. In connnection with a widespread renaissance of pragmatism in the 1980s, he was recognized as a crucial member of this philosophical school. And while the enthusiasm may have abated a little bit around 2000, this book is an indicator for the continuing vitality of Mead's thinking on the international scene. This collection is a welcome addition to the growing field of Mead studies.

— Hans Joas, Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin

George Herbert Mead in the Twenty-First Century

Edited by F. Thomas Burke and Krzysztof Skowronski

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