George Herbert Mead

Der us-amerikanische Philosoph, Soziologie und Psychologie George Herbert Mead (27.02.1863 South Hadley, Mass. - 26.04.1931 in Chicago) wirkte hauptsächlich an der Universität von Chicago und gilt als wichtiger Vertreter des Pragmatismus.

Mit einem M.A. der Harvard University ging Mead 1888 nach Leipzig zu Wilhelm Wundt ("Die Geste"), heiratete 1891 und erhielt - obwohl er seine Doktorarbeit nie fertigstellte (und übrigens auch zeit seines Lebens kein einziges Buch veröffentlichen würde) - in demselben Jahr eine Stelle an der University of Michigan, wo er Charles H. Cooley und John Dewey kennenlernte. 1894 ging er mit Dewey an die University of Chicago, wo er bis an sein Lebensende lehrte ("Mind, Self, and Society") und politisch aktiv war.

Nach seinem Tod stellten einige seiner Studenten vier Bände seiner Schriften zusammen:

• The Philosophy of the Present (1932), hg. v. Arthur E. Murphy
• Mind, Self, and Society (1934), hg. v. Charles W. Morris
• Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1936), hg. v. Merritt H. Moore
• The Philosophy of the Act (1938), Mead's 1930 Carus Lectures, hg. v. Charles W. Morris.

• 1964 gab zudem Andrew J. Reck 25 seiner wichtigen Veröffentlichungen heraus: Selected Writings: George Herbert Mead. Bobbs-Merrill, The Liberal Arts Press.

Die Kriminologie rezipierte u.a.:

• "The Psychology of Punitive Justice", American Journal of Sociology 23, (1918): 577-602. deutsch: Psychologie der Strafjustiz. In: Gesammelte Aufsätze Band I. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp
• “The Genesis of Self and Social Control” (1925)
• “The Objective Reality of Perspectives” (1926)

Pragmatismus und Symbolischer Interaktionismus

Im Gegensatz zu mehr ontologischen Denkern wie Heidegger, die die Enthüllung des Seins aus der Perspektive des erlebenden Menschen betonen, konzentrieren sich Pragmatiker wie Mead auf die Entwicklung des Selbst und die Objektivität der Welt innerhalb des sozialen Bereichs. Sie betonen die wechselseitige Abhängigkeit menschlichen Bewußtseins von geteilten Bedeutungen (vgl. Mead 1982: 5). Um Akteure zu verstehen, so Mead, so es von großer Bedeutung, zunächst einmal anzusehen, was Menschen tatsächlich tun. Dreierlei ist für den symbolischen Interaktionismus entscheidend:

• Fokus auf die Interaktion zwischen dem Akteur und der Welt
• Eine Betrachtung des Akteurs und der Welt als dynamischer Prozesse und nicht statischer Strukturen
• Die Fähigkeit des Akteurs, die soziale Welt zu interpretieren.

Mithin ist das Bewußtsein nicht von der Aktion und Interaktion zu trennen, sondern integraler Teil von beiden. Die Schüler von Mead entwickelten daraus den symbolischen Interaktionismus. Aus dem "sozialen Behaviorismus" Meads entwickelte sich ein sozialphilosophischer Strang der Theorien kommunikativen Handelns. Nach Mead entwickelt sich Geist ausschließlich aus dem sozialen Handeln und sozialer Kommunikation und insofern gibt es keinen Geist und keinen Gedanken ohne Sprache - und Sprache (der Inhalt des Geistes) “is only a development and product of social interaction” (Mind, Self and Society, 191 f.). Das ist der Handlungs-Nexus der Wahrnehmung und der Sprache. Wir nehmen die Welt in Begriffen von "Mitteln zum Leben" wahr (Mead 1982: 120). Lebensmittel wahrzunehmen ist dasselbe wie Essen wahrzunehmen. Ein Haus wahrzunehmen bedeutet Unterkunft wahrzunehmen. Das ist der Handlungsbezug von Wahrnehmung.

Das Individuum ist ein Produkt der Gesellschaft und von sozialer Interaktion. Das Selbst entsteht, wenn das Individuum für sich selbst zum Objekt wird, indem es die Perspektive anderer Menschen auf sich selbst richtet. Menschen lernen, sich vom Standpunkt anderer anzusehen. Mead entwickelte die von William James stammende Unterscheidung zwischen "I" und "me" weiter. Das "me" ist das akkumulierte Verstehen des "generalisierten anderen", d.h. dessen, was man glaubt, das die eigenen Bezugsgruppen von einem halten. Das "I" ist das Selbst als Subjekt, das "me" ist das Selbst als Objekt. Das "I" ist der, der etwas weiß (the knower), das "me" ist der, von dem etwas gewusst wird (the known). Der Geist, der Bewußtseinsstrom, ist die Gesamtheit der selbstreflexiven Bewegungen der Interaktion zwisThe mind, or stream of thought, is the self-reflective movements of the interaction between the "I" and the "me." These dynamics go beyond selfhood in a narrow sense, and form the basis of a theory of human cognition. For Mead the thinking process is the internalized dialogue between the "I" and the "me." Mead rooted the self’s “perception and meaning” deeply and sociologically in "a common praxis of subjects" (Joas 1985: 166) found specifically in social encounters. Understood as a combination of the 'I' and the 'me', Mead’s self proves to be noticeably entwined within a sociological existence: For Mead, existence in community comes before individual consciousness. First one must participate in the different social positions within society and only subsequently can one use that experience to take the perspective of others and thus become self-conscious.

Play and Game and the Generalized Other

Mead theorized that human beings begin their understanding of the social world through "play" and "game". "Play" comes first in the child's development. The child takes different roles he/she observes in "adult" society, and plays them out to gain an understanding of the different social roles. For instance, he first plays the role of policeman and then the role of thief while playing "Cops and Robbers," and plays the role of doctor and patient when playing "Doctor." As a result of such play, the child learns to become both subject and object and begins to become able to build a self. However, it is a limited self because the child can only take the role of distinct and separate others, they still lack a more general and organized sense of themselves.[19]

In the next stage, the game stage, it is required that a person develop a self in the full sense of the term. Whereas in the play stage the child takes on the role of distinct others, in the game stage the child must take the role of everyone else involved in the game. Furthermore, these roles must have a definite relationship to one another. To illustrate the game stage, Mead gives his famous example of a baseball game:

But in a game where a number of individuals are involved, then the child taking one role must be ready to take the role of everyone else. If he gets in a ball nine he must have the responses of each position involved in his own position. He must know what everyone else is going to do in order to carry out his own play. He has to take all of these roles. They do not all have to be present in consciousness at the same time, but at some moments he has to have three or four individuals present in his own attitude, such as the one who is going to throw the ball, the one who is going to catch it and so on. These responses must be, in some degree, present in his own make-up. In the game, then, there is a set of responses of such others so organized that the attitude of one calls out the appropriate attitudes of the other. (Mead, 1934/1962:151)

In the game stage, organization begins and definite personalities start to emerge. Children begin to become able to function in organized groups and most importantly, to determine what they will do within a specific group.[20] Mead calls this the child's first encounter with "the generalized other", which is one of the main concepts Mead proposes for understanding the emergence of the (social) self in human beings. "The generalized other" can be understood as understanding the given activity and the actors place within the activity from the perspective of all the others engaged in the activity. Through understanding "the generalized other" the individual understands what kind of behavior is expected, appropriate and so on, in different social settings. The mechanism of perspective taking within social acts is the exchange of social positions.

Notes

^ Baldwin, John (2009). George Herbert Mead. Sage. ISBN 0-8039-2320-1. ^ Miller, David (2009). George Herbert Mead: Self, Language, and the World. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-72700-3. ^ Ritzer, George (2008). Sociological Theory. McGraw-Hill. pp. 352–353. ISBN 978-0-07-352818-2. ^ Ritzer, George (2008). Sociological Theory. McGraw-Hill. pp. 353. ISBN 978-0-07-352818-2. ^ [1] “Suggestions Towards a Theory of the Philosophical Disciplines” (1900) ^ [2] “Social Consciousness and the Consciousness of Meaning” (1910) ^ [3] “What Social Objects Must Psychology Presuppose” (1910) ^ [4] “The Mechanism of Social Consciousness” ^ [5] “The Social Self” (1913) ^ [6] “Scientific Method and the Individual Thinker” (1917) ^ [7] “A Behavioristic Account of the Significant Symbol” (1922) ^ a b c Cronk, George (2005), "George Herbert Mead", in Fieser, James; Dowden, Bradley, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ^ The Mead Project at Brock University ^ Ritzer, George (2008). Sociological Theory. McGraw-Hill. pp. 347–350. ISBN 978-0-07-352818-2. ^ a b c Desmonde, William H (2006) [1967]. "Mead, George Herbert (1863-1931)". In Borchert, Donald M.. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 6. Macmillan Reference. pp. 79–82. ISBN 0028657861. ^ Ritzer, George (2008). Sociological Theory. McGraw-Hill. pp. 356–357. ISBN 978-0-07-352818-2. ^ Gillespie, Alex (2006). Becoming Other - from Social Interaction to Self-Reflection. Information Age Publishing. ISBN 9781593112301. ^ Margolis, Joseph; Jacques Catudal (2001). The Quarrel between Invariance and Flux. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. ^ Ritzer, George (2008). Sociological Theory. McGraw-Hill. pp. 360. ISBN 978-0-07-352818-2. ^ Ritzer, George (2008). Sociological Theory. McGraw-Hill. pp. 360–361. ISBN 978-0-07-352818-2. Bibliography

1932. The Philosophy of the Present. Prometheus Books. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Ed. by Charles W. Morris. University of Chicago Press. 1936. Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century. Ed. by C. W. Morris. University of Chicago Press. 1938. The Philosophy of the Act. Ed. by C.W. Morris et al. University of Chicago Press. 1964. Selected Writings. Ed. by A. J. Reck. University Chicago Press. This out-of-print volume collects articles Mead himself prepared for publication. 1982. The Individual and the Social Self: Unpublished Essays by G. H. Mead. Ed. by David L. Miller. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780608094793 2001. Essays in Social Psychology. Ed. by M. J. Deegan. Transaction Books. (Book review [13])

Literatur

Aboulafia, Mitchell (ed.) (1991) Philosophy, Social Theory, and the Thought of George Herbert Mead. SUNY Press. Aboulafia, Mitchell (2001) The Cosmopolitan Self: George Herbert Mead and Continental Philosophy. University of Illinois Press. Blumer, H. & Morrione, T.J. (2004) George Herbert Mead and Human Conduct. New York: Altamira Press. Conesa-Sevilla, J. (2005). The Realm of Continued Emergence: The Semiotics of George Herbert Mead and its Implications to Biosemiotics, Semiotics Matrix Theory, and Ecological Ethics. Sign Systems Studies, September, 2005, Tartu University, Estonia. Cook, Gary A. (1993) G.H. Mead: The Making of a Social Pragmatist. University of Illinois Press. Gillespie, A. (2005) "G.H. Mead: Theorist of the social act," [14] Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 35: 19-39. Gillespie, A. (2006). Games and the development of perspective taking [15]. Human Development, 49, 87-92. Joas, Hans (1985) G.H. Mead: A Contemporary Re-examination of His Thought. MIT Press. Habermas, Jürgen (1992) "Individuation through socialization: On George Herbert Mead’s theory of socialization," in Habermas, Postmetaphysical Thinking, translated by William Mark Hohengarten. MIT Press. Honneth, Axel (1996) "Recognition and socialization: Mead's naturalistic transformation of Hegel's idea," in Honneth, Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, translated by Joel Anderson. MIT Press. Lewis, J.D. (1979) "A social behaviorist interpretation of the Meadian 'I'," American Journal of Sociology 85: 261-287. Lundgren, D.C. (2004) "Social feedback and self-appraisals: Current status of the Mead-Cooley hypothesis," Symbolic Interaction 27: 267-286. Miller, David L. (1973) G.H. Mead: Self, Language and the World. University of Chicago Press. Sánchez de la Yncera, Ignacio (1994) La Mirada Reflexiva de G.H. Mead. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. Shalin, Dmitri (1988) "G. H. Mead, socialism, and the progressive agenda," American Journal of Sociology 93: 913-951. Silva, F. C. (2007) G.H. Mead. A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press. Silva, F. C. (2008) Mead and Modernity. Science, Selfhood and Democratic Politics. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Weblinks

• George Herbert Mead. "The Psychology of Punitive Justice", American Journal of Sociology 23, (1918): 577-602. deutsch: Psychologie der Strafjustiz. In: Gesammelte Aufsätze Band I. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. Der Originaltext findet sich unter:[[1]]

• Dies ist eine noch zu übersetzende und zu kriminologifizierende Baustelle. Grundlage ist: en.wikipedia [[2]]