George Herbert Mead Quotes
George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, psychologist, and sociologist and one of the central figures of classical American pragmatism. A colleague of John Dewey at Chicago, he developed an influential social theory of mind, self, and society in which all three are constituted in and through symbolic interaction. The quotes below are attributed to George Herbert Mead, organized by topic.
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George Herbert Mead on Knowledge
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“p. 1 , lead paragraph”
Social psychology has, as a rule, dealt with various phases of social experience from the psychological standpoint of individual experience. The point of approach which I wish to suggest is that of dealing with experience from the standpoint of society , at least from the standpoint of communication as essential to the social order. Social psychology, on this view, presupposes an approach to exper -
“Social psychology is especially interested in the effect which the social group has in the determination of the experience and conduct of the individual member.”
p. 1
George Herbert Mead on Mind
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Attributed to George Herbert Mead:
“The self is not present at birth; it arises in the process of social experience and activity.”
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Attributed to George Herbert Mead:
“The 'I' acts in response to the 'me' of accumulated experience.”
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Attributed to George Herbert Mead:
“We must be others if we are to be ourselves.”
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“p. 187. Essay 13. "Perception and the Spatiotemporal”
There is, of course, the critical difference between the pressure of hands against each other, and that of the stone against the hand: that in the case of the pressure of the hands against each other there is the sense of effort in each hand, while in the case of the stone there is only the sense of resistance in the stone against the pressing hand. However, the resistance remains an identical con
George Herbert Mead on Nature
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“Man lives in a world of Meaning. What he sees and hears means what he will or might handle.”
George Herbert Mead (1926). "The Nature of Aesthetic Experience." International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Jul., 1926), pp. 382-393; p. 382 -
“The proximate goal of all perception is what we can get our hands upon. If we traverse the distance that separate us from that which we see or hear and find nothing for the hand to manipulate, the experience is an illusion or a hallucination. The world of perceptual reality, the world of physical things, is the world of our contacts and our manipulations, and the distance experience of the eye and the ear means first of all these physical things. Physical things are not only the meaning of what we see and hear; they are also the means we employ to accomplish our ends.”
George Herbert Mead (1926). "The Nature of Aesthetic Experience." International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Jul., 1926), pp. 382-393; p. 382 -
“The proximate goal of all perception is what we can get our hands upon. If we traverse the distance that separate us from that which we see or hear and find nothing for the hand to manipulate, the experience is an illusion or a hallucination. The world of perceptual reality, the world of physical things, is the world of our contacts and our manipulations, and the distance experience of the eye and”
George Herbert Mead (1926). "The Nature of Aesthetic Experience." International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Jul., 1926), pp. 382-393; p. 382 -
“Physical things are perceptual things. They also arise within the act... It is in the operation with these perceptual or physical things which lie within the physiological act short of consummation that the peculiar human intelligence is found.”
George Herbert Mead (1927;314), as cited in: Marcus Persson (2007), Mellan människor och ting. En interaktionistisk analys av samlandet, p. 19
George Herbert Mead on Politics
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Attributed to George Herbert Mead:
“Society shapes the self, and the self in turn shapes society.”
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Attributed to George Herbert Mead:
“Communication is the basis of human community.”