American Academy of Political and Social Science

Mind, Self and Society, from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist by George H. Mead
Review by: W. Rex Crawford
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 179, Pressure Groups
and Propaganda (May, 1935), pp. 272-273
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and
Social Science
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 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY
upon social thinking in one direction,
Condorcet is, to say the very least, a pri-
mary figure in his effect upon both public
education and the employment of the idea
of progress.
The assignment of status to a historical
figure is a matter of taste, interest, and con-
tamination from authority, rather than a
matter of the intrinsic worth of the per-
sonality. I cannot help thinking that if
Professor Schapiro had been less concerned
to hold up Condorcet as a mirrorof the polit-
ical, intellectual, social, economic, and re-
ligious liberalism of the eighteenth century,
and had been more concerned to discern
the drive and passion of the man himself,
he would not have been so ready to accept
the traditional judgment of the critics.
"His writings," says Professor Schapiro,
"form an almost perfect synthesis of
French liberal thought in the eighteenth
century in all of its strength and weakness:
its love of abstract political and social ideas;
its rigid rationalism; its hatred of the past
and its hopes for the future; its passionate
devotion to humanity; and its facile opti-
mism."
This description of French liberal thought
is in itself debatable. There is certainly no
facile optimism in either Voltaire or Rous-
seau. The former's devotion to humanity
carries without major reservations. The
latter's rationalism has anything but
rigidity, and if political and social ideas
should happen to be abstract in Rousseau,
they emerge with considerable concreteness
in Voltaire and Montesquieu, and as these
men vary from each other, Condorcet varies
from both of them. Call him "the last of
the encyclopedists, and the most universal,"
he is also the most personally withdrawn
and introverted. So far as he himself was
concerned, his writings were events in his
biography, and what in them signalizes his
personality is not what they have in com-
mon with the liberal mind of the eighteenth
century, but what they do not have in com-
mon. It is the exposition of this personal
difference that I miss in Dr. Schapiro's
otherwise admirable book. It is as adequate
a guide to French liberalism as one can find
in English, but it is no guide to Condorcet.
H. M. KALLEN
New York City
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MEAD,GEORGE H. Mind, Self and Society,
from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist.
Pp. xxxviii, 401, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1934. $5.00.
Professor Charles Morris has been at
much pains to present to us the social
psychology of the late Professor Mead on
the basis of notes taken in his course,
"Social Psychology." He and other former
students of Mead expect to give us two
volumes of Mead's works on the history of
ideas and his systematic pragmatism.
It is claimed for Mead that he has shown
us that (and how) mind and the self are
generated in a social process. He begins
with the social act, and by it explains the
conduct of the individual. Mead is be-
havioristic in starting with the observable
activity, not "in the sense of ignoring the
inner experience of the individual." The
mind and the thinking process arise out of
gestures which have become significant
symbols, i.e., which have the same effect on
the individual making the gesture and on
him to whom it is addressed. The social
group or society consists of those who at-
tach the same meaning to gestures. At an
advanced level the observer remarks that
the universal, impersonal quality thought
possesses derives from the fact that the
thinking individual (as opposed to the emo-
tive) takes toward himself the attitude of
others, merging their attitudes finally in
one, which Mead calls that of the "general-
ized other."
The self arises in social experience, for it
is only communication which enables the
individual to take itself as an object by
playing the role of the "other." The truly
unified self has toward itself the attitude of
the whole community or "generalized
other," in which the individual attitudes of
others are organized. Mead distinguishes
between the "me," which is this organized
set of attitudes, and the "I," which is the
organism's response to the attitudes of
others.
In the light of this analysis certain
sociological concepts, such as social control,
leadership, and institutions, acquire new
meaning. If self-criticism is really social
criticism, behavior controlled by it is so-
cially controlled. The institution is es-
sentially a community of response. The
 BOOK DEPARTMENT 273

leader is he who lives in the largest group.
In such social activities as those of patriot-
ism, religion, and team work, the "I" and
the "me" are fused and exalted, and the
social process successfully completed. To
go beyond the individual, in the organizing
of common attitudes and the entering into
the attitudes of others, lies the promise of
democracy.
Not painfully skeletonized, but brought
to life by the wisdom and insight of Mead,
this social psychology makes an appealing
and plausible system in spite of the uni-
lateral character which almost unavoid-
ably attends philosophic originality.
W. REX CRAWFORD
University of Pennsylvania
JACKS, L. P. Ethical Factors of the Present
Crisis. Baltimore: William & Wilkins
Company, 1934. $1.50.
In Principal Jacks' little book, Brown
University presents us with a worthy suc-
cessor to the other seventeen volumes of CLEETON, GLEN U. Occupational Adjust-
Colver Lectures and to the distinguished
series of the author's writings.
The maintenance of a high civilization
requires courage as well as intelligence. COOPER, COURTNEY RYLEY. Ten Thou-
Moral ideas cannot be trusted to fulfill
themselves; we must by courageous effort
hasten the coming of a better day. The
world needs more will, and less obsession DAVIS,
with happiness. The greatest waste in the
world is the waste of potential creative
activity-a situation which education does
too little to correct. "We need discipline
to guard mankind from the waste of its
energies in the coming leisure." Mr.
Jacks' recurring idea is that education for
leisure, education that will produce dis- DURANTY, WALTER. Europe: War or
ciplined self-control and cooperation, must
be as much the education of the body as of
the mind.
W. REX CRAWFORD
University of Pennsylvania
BOOKS RECEIVED
AMBRUSTER, HOWARD WATSON and UR-
SULA. Why Not Enforce the Laws We
Already Have? Pp. 86. Westfield,
N. J.: Ursula Ambruster, 1935. 50g.
BAEHNE, GEORGEWALTER. Practical Ap-
plications of the Punched Card Method in
Colleges and Universities. Pp. xxii, 442.
New York: Columbia University Press,
1935. $4.50.
BELLOC, HILAIRE. A Shorter History of
England. New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1934. $3.00.
BOGART, ERNEST L. Economic History of
the American People. Rev. ed. Pp. xii,
891. New York: Longmans, Green &
Company, 1935. $3.50.
BRAATOY, TRYGVE. Mdnner zwischen 15
und 25. Mentalhygienische Untersuch-
ungen mit besonderer Beriicksightigung
der Schizophrenie. Pp. 148. Oslo: Fab-
ritius & Sonners Forlag, 1934. Kr. .70.
Building and Loan Annals, 1934. Pp. xi,
926. Chicago: United States Building
and Loan League, 1934. $5.00.
CATLIN, WARREN B. The Labor Problem.
Pp. xii, 765. New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1935. $3.50.
ment in Allegheny County. Pp. 58.
Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Personnel Asso-
ciation, 1935.
sand Public Enemies. Pp. 356. Boston:
Little, Brown & Company, 1935. $3.00.
JEROME. Report of the Legislative
Commissionon Jails, with a Special Study
on the Jail Population of Connecticut.
Pp. 119. Hartford: State of Connecti-
cut, 1934.
DUANE, MORRIS. The New Deal in Court.
Pp. 93. Philadelphia: Geo. T. Bisel,
1935.
Peace? Pp. 47. New York: World
Peace Foundation, 1935. 50?.
DVORAK, BEATRICE JEANNE. Differential
Occupational Ability Patterns. Pp. 46.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1935. $1.00.
ESCOBEDO, GENNARO. Rappresentanza e
Sostituzione Processuale. Pp. 130.
Citta di Castello, Societa An. Tip., 1934.
FAIRCHILD, FRED R., et al. Connecticut
Temporary Commission to Study the Tax
Laws of the State and to Make Recom-
mendations Concerning Their Revision.

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