People 

 George Herbert Mead 1863–1931 -  United States

Encyclopedia Entries

Columbia Encyclopedia

Questions of 

mind as the natural emergent from the interaction of the human organism and its social environment. Within this biosocial structure the gap between impulse and reason is bridged by the use of language. Mastering language, humans set up assumptions as to their roles in life, and self and consciousness-of-self emerge, giving intelligence a historical development that is both natural and moral. Mead called his position social behaviorism, using conduct—both social and biological—as an approach to all experience. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2003 Columbia University Press

Reading

The Philosophy of the Present (1932), 

Mind, Self, and Society (1934), and 

The Philosophy of the Act (1938).

Writing Available on the Internet

Commentary

P. Pfuetze, The Social Self (1954, repr. 1973 under the title Self, Society, Existence)

 W. R. Corti, ed., The Philosophy of George Herbert Mead (1977); 

D. L. Miller, George Herbert Mead: Self, Language, and the World (1980).

Quotations

CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY SSR Prelim Summary Archive

Mead, George H. TS, pp. 163-617 ('The I and the Me'), pp. 739-40 ('Taking the Role of the Other'), pp. 829-30 ('Internalized Others and the Self'), pp. 999-1004 ('From Gesture to Symbol').