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    STUDIA THEOLOGIA%20GRAECO-CATHOLICA%20VARADIENSIS - Issue no. 1 / 2004  
         
  Article:   GEORGE HERBERT MEAD – FORMATIVE CONSIDERATIONS.

Authors:  ANCA CÂMPIAN.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  George Herbert Mead – Formative considerations. George Herbert Mead was the most prominent member (after John Dewey) of the so-called Chicago School, a group of thinkers concentrated around the University of Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century. Mead`s theoretical beliefs are self-evident in his lecture notes, the few writings published during his lifetime and his posthumous books: Philosophy of the Present (1932), Mind, Self and Society (1934), Movements of Thought in the 19th Century (1936) and The Philosophy of the Act (1938). Upon his death at 68, in 1938, Mead had not published one single book. After the posthumous publishing of his books he was, however, acknowledged as one of the greatest American pragmatists. His views dominated sociology and social psychology during the first decades of the 20th century, yet echoes of those views are present in those fields even today. Starting from realities of evolutionist biology, he tried to explain the birth and evolution of the spirit, and the self-consciousness. Mead acknowledged human behavior in its social context, which allowed him to find in language and the whole communicational field the key for the existence of the self. Mead`s philosophy is a blend of behaviorism and pragmatism. Like his fellow philosophers, he is both a psychologist and more than a traditional philosopher, with both theoretical and practical aptitudes. Mead`s thought gives main roles to social context and social experience, prioritizing the explaining of human behavior and its influence on language. Mead tried to use sociology and its tools to solve the crisis of authority plaguing modern world. This is why he saw any research on man as anchored in society, and any research on authority as contained within the dimension and limitations of society. While other philosophers of nature were only interested in describing existing reality, Mead- as the true pragmatist that he was- was motivated to find true solutions to true problems.  
         
     
         
         
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