MIND, SELF, and SOCIETY - Free

1 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS chicago and london mind , self , and SOCIETY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A SOCIAL BEHAVIORIST GEORGE H. MEAD edited and with an introduction by CHARLES W. MORRIS ! " # $ % && $ % $ ' ( The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London $ " !% () " * + !, &! " # $ ! % $ " !% " $ & -. / !& 0 !% & & , 1 !& () 2!% ' &&! 1 ! ! + ! & # 0' ! [ v ] PREFACE HE following pages present the larger outlines of George H. Mead s system of social psychology. His views were developed from 1900 on at the University of Chicago in the widely known and highly influential course, Social Psychology.)

2 Year after year students with psychologi- cal, sociological, linguistic, educational, philantropic, and phil- osophical interests attended the course frequently for a num- ber of years; and book after book has borne testimony to the impact of Mead s ideas on his numerous students. The present volume contains much that will be of value to those of similar interests. For many of his listeners Mead s point of view at once humanistic and scholarly came to function as a focus of orientation for their entire intellectual and valuational life.

3 The course in social psychology gave the foundation of Mead s thought. It was in effect Mead as scientist; it was upon this foundation that his philosophical elaboration and social partici-pation rested. It is hoped that the present volume will be fol-lowed by volumes on / , ' & # * % ! ! $ ", and * 1 ! & " # 0 . Together these three volumes would represent the three main fields of Mead s work: social psychology and social philosophy, the history of ideas, systematic pragmatism. They are supplemented by the already published volume, * 1 !

4 & " # 1 & , edited by Arthur E. Murphy, and published in 1932 by the Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago. Though he published many papers in the field of social psy-chology (as the bibliography at the end of this volume shows), Professor Mead never systematized his position and results in longer form. The present volume aims to do this task of sys-tematization, partly by the arrangement of the material and partly through references at the appropriate places to the pub- T preface [ vi ] lished writings.

5 It provides the natural entrance into the intel-lectual world of George H. Mead. None of the material here used has been previously published. The volume is in the main composed of two sets of excellent student notes on the course, together with excerpts from other such notes and selections from unpublished manuscripts left by Mr. Mead. A stenographic copy of the 1927 course in social psychology has been taken as basic. This set, together with a number of similar sets for other courses, owes its existence to the devotion and foresight of Mr.

6 George Anagnos. Sensing, as a student, the importance of the material of Mr. Mead s lec- tures (always delivered without notes), he found in Mr. Alvin Carus a sympathetic fellow-worker who was able to provide the means necessary to employ persons to take down verbatim the various courses. The completeness of the material varies con- siderably, but the set basic to this volume was very full. The whole is by no means a court record, but it is certainly as ade-quate and as faithful a record as has been left of a great think- er s last years.

7 This material can be utilized through the De-partment of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. The basic manuscript has been greatly enriched by the faith-ful and full notes of another devoted student, Mr. Robert Page, notes especially valuable since they are for 1930, the last year in which the course was given in its complete form at Chicago. Into the 1927 material (when rearranged, pruned of superfluous repetitions, and stylistically corrected) were inserted portions of the 1930 material, both into the text and as footnotes.

8 The same was done to a much lesser degree with material from other courses, and selections from other sets than 1927 and 1930 are indicated by giving the year after the selection. Insertion of material from manuscripts has been indicated by inserting MS after the selection. All titles have been added by the editor. Other editorial additions are inclosed in brackets. Supplementary Essays I , II, III taken together practically constitute one unpublished manuscript. Essay IV is a compila-tion made from a 1927 stenographic set of notes of an elemen- preface [ vii ] tary ethics course.

9 I am grateful to Mr. Anagnos, Mr. Carus, and Mr. Page for making available the bulk of the material used. Professor T. V. Smith and Professor Herbert Blumer have read and commented on portions of the manuscript. Mr. John M. Brewster and Professor Albert M. Dunham have given freely of their time and of their intimate knowledge of Mead s views. Students too numerous to mention have kindly put at my dis-posal their class notes, and I wish to express to them my sincere thanks. The main work on the bibliography was done by Pro- fessor Dunham, though Mr.

10 Brewster, Mr. V. Lewis Bassie, and Professor Merrit H. Moore have contributed items. Mr. Ar- thur C. Bergholz is responsible for the final bibliography. A grant by the Committee on Humanistic Research of the Uni- versity made possible valuable assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. Mrs. Rachel W. Stevenson had the task of turn-ing a confusion of marks into ordered copy. Professor James H. Tufts graciously aided in the reading of proof. My wife as- sisted in the preparation of the Index. At every stage of the work the staff of the University Press has given its efficient assistance.