George Herbert Mead

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Lore & Background

George Herbert Mead was born on February 27, 1863, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, into a Protestant middle-class family. His father, Hiram Mead, was a former Congregationalist pastor and held the chair in Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology at Oberlin College's theological seminary. His mother, Elizabeth Storrs Mead, taught at Oberlin College and later served as president of Mount Holyoke College from 1890 to 1900. Mead enrolled at Oberlin Academy in 1879, then Oberlin College, graduating in 1883 with a Bachelor of Arts. After teaching grade school for about four months, he worked as a surveyor for the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company from late 1883 through summer 1887. In 1891, he married Helen Kingsbury Castle, sister of his friend Henry Northrup Castle. Despite never finishing his dissertation, Mead obtained a post at the University of Michigan in 1891, where he met Charles Horton Cooley and John Dewey. In 1894, he moved with Dewey to the University of Chicago, teaching there until his death. Dewey influenced Mead's entry into educational theory, but Mead's thinking soon diverged, leading to his psychological theories of mind, self, and society. Mead was active in Chicago's social and political affairs, working for the City Club of Chicago, conducting research at a settlement house, and serving as treasurer for Hull House in collaboration with Jane Addams. He died of heart failure on April 26, 1931, after resigning from the University of Chicago three months earlier over the hiring of Mortimer J. Adler, intending to join Columbia University.

Reader's Guide

Mead's significance lies in his development of social behaviorism and symbolic interactionism, which emphasized that mind and self emerge from social communication through significant symbols. He argued that consciousness is not separate from action and interaction but integral to both. His work, particularly 'Mind, Self and Society' (1934), founded the symbolic interactionist school of sociology. Mead's pragmatist roots led him to view reality as actively created through action, with meaning derived from social interaction. He insisted that 'the individual mind can exist only in relation to other minds with shared meanings.' His theories influenced many graduate students at the University of Chicago who later established symbolic interactionism. Mead's social philosophy opposed the traditional view of mind as separate from body, instead seeing mind as emergent from the ongoing social process. His concept of the significant symbol—a gesture that arouses the same response in the maker as in the receiver—was central to his theory of communication. Mead grounded human perception in an 'action-nexus,' perceiving the world in terms of 'means of living.' He argued that the self arises when the individual becomes an object to themself, first to other people, then to themselves by taking the perspective of others. A central mechanism enabling perspective taking is position exchange within social acts, such as in children's games like hide-and-seek. Mead's legacy endures in sociology, psychology, and philosophy, particularly through the Chicago School of Sociology.

Did You Know?

• Mead never finished his dissertation but still obtained a post at the University of Michigan in 1891.
• He worked as a surveyor for the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company from late 1883 through summer 1887.
• Mead served as treasurer for Chicago's Hull House and collaborated closely with Jane Addams on social justice matters.
• He resigned from the University of Chicago three months before his death over the hiring of Mortimer J. Adler, intending to join Columbia University.
• Mead's mother, Elizabeth Storrs Mead, served as president of Mount Holyoke College from 1890 to 1900.