The general aim of this paper is twofold. First, we evaluate Mead’s later efforts at developing a non-conscious theory of meaning that refutes the primacy of Descartes’s cogito as a foundational explanation of adult human understanding and social interaction. However, paired with this first goal, we also intend to use Mead’s theoretical framework as a paradigmatic example of a theory of intersubjectivity. We will show how Mead problematically reintroduces the presence of conscious awareness in order to provide an intersubjective account of mutual human understanding and interaction. We argue that this position reveals a lacuna in both Mead’s theory of meaning specifically, as well as in theories of intersubjectivity more broadly. Such approaches require a foundational account of practical meaning and knowledge. We conclude by exploring the links between these arguments and the emerging theory of interobjectivity.
BenhabibS. (2002). The claims of culture: Equality and diversity in the global era. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
3.
BenjaminJ. (1990). An outline of intersubjectivity: The development of recognition. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7, 33–46.
4.
BlumerH. (2004). George Herbert Mead and human conduct. New York, NY: AltaMira Press.
5.
CoehloN.E.FigueiredoL.C. (2003). Patterns of intersubjectivity in the constitution of subjectivity: Dimensions of otherness. Culture & Psychology, 9, 193–208.
6.
CookG.A. (1993). George Herbert Mead: The making of a social pragmatist. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
7.
daSilvaF.C. (2007). G.H. Mead: A system in a state of flux. History of the Human Sciences, 20, 45–65.
8.
DaanenP. (2009). Conscious and non-conscious representation in social representations theory: Social representations theory from the phenomenological point of view. Culture & Psychology, 15, 372–385.
9.
DeweyJ. (1922). Human nature and conduct: An introduction to social psychology. London, UK: George Allen & Unwin.
10.
DreyfusH. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary of Heidegger’s Being and time, division I. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
11.
FonagyP.TargetM. (1996). Playing with reality: I. Theory of mind and normal development of psychic reality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 77, 217–233.
12.
GadamerH.-G. (1995). Truth and method. New York, NY: Continuum. (Original work published 1960)
13.
GibsonJ.J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
14.
GiddensA. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
15.
GillespieA. (2005). G.H. Mead: Theorist of the social act. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 35, 20–39.
16.
HeideggerM. (1996). Being and time. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. (Original work published 1927)
LatourB. (1996). On interobjectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3, 228–245.
19.
LeudarI.CostallA. (2004). On the persistence of the “problem of other minds” in psychology: Chomsky, Grice and theory of mind. Theory & Psychology, 14, 601–621.
20.
MartinJ. (2005). Perspectival selves in interaction with others: Re-reading G.H. Mead’s social psychology. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 35, 231–253.
21.
MartinJ. (2006). Reinterpreting internalization and agency through G.H. Mead’s perspectival realism. Human Development, 49, 65–87.
22.
MeadG.H. (1910). Social consciousness and the consciousness of meaning. Psychological Bulletin, 6, 401–408.
23.
MeadG.H. (1913). The social self. Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 10, 374–380.
24.
MeadG.H. (1917). Scientific method and individual thinker. In DeweyJ.MooreA.W.Chapman BrownH.MeadG.H.BodeB.H.Waldgrave Stuart… H.KallenH.M. (Eds.), Creative intelligence: Essays in the pragmatic attitude (pp. 176–227). New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.
25.
MeadG.H. (1922). A behavioristic account of the significant symbol. Journal of Philosophy, 19, 157–163.
26.
MeadG.H. (1925). The genesis of self and social control. International Journal of Ethics, 35, 251–277.
27.
MeadG.H. (1926). The objective reality of perspectives. In BrightmanE.S. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy (pp. 75–85). New York, NY: Longmans, Green and Co.
28.
MeadG.H. (1929). A pragmatic theory of truth. University of California Publications in Philosophy, 11, 65–88.
29.
MeadG.H. (1932). The philosophy of the present. La Salle, IL: Open Court.
30.
MeadG.H. (1934). Mind, self and society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist (MorrisC.W., Ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
31.
MeadG.H. (1936). The philosophy of John Dewey. International Journal of Ethics, 46, 64–81.
32.
MeadG.H. (1938). The philosophy of the act. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Merleau-PontyM. (1973). Consciousness and the acquisition of language. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1964)
34.
MillerD.L. (1973). George Herbert Mead: Self, language, and the world. Austin: University of Texas Press.
35.
MoghaddamF. M. (2008). Multiculturalism and intergroup relations: Psychological implications for democracy in global context. Washington, DC: American PsychologicalAssociation.
36.
RyleG. (2000). The concept of mind. London, UK: Penguin. (Original work published 1949)
37.
SammutG.DaanenP.SartawiM. (2010). Interobjectivity: Representations and artefacts in cultural psychology. Culture & Psychology, 16, 451–463. doi: 10.1177/1354067X10380158
38.
SammutG.GaskellG. (2010). Points of view, social positioning and intercultural relations. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 40, 47–64.
39.
ShotterJ. (1993). Cultural politics of everyday life: Social constructionism, rhetoric, and knowing of the third kind. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
40.
SternD.N. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York, NY: Basic Books.
41.
SternD.N. (2004). The present moment in psychotherapy and everyday life. New York, NY: Norton.
42.
TaylorC. (1993). Engaged agency and background in Heidegger. In GuignonC. (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Heidegger (pp. 317–337). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
43.
ThorntonS.P. (2004). Solipsism and the problem of other minds. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/solipsis/
44.
WittgensteinL. (1953). Philosophical investigations. New York, NY: Macmillan.
