George Herbert Mead And The Chicago Tradition Of Sociology.

The article focuses on the association of the Chicago tradition of sociology with the name of sociologist George Herbert Mead. Despite his symbolic importance to the tradition developed at the University of Chicago, Mead's thought had only a partial and indirect impact on how Chicago sociology was actually done. The authors in the article proposes to indicate how Mead shared the same general problem with the actual founders of Chicago sociology, how his particular approach and conclusions differed from theirs and how these differences ramified his view of social science. They also shall suggest how Mead's basic argument was picked up in fragmentary form by the sociologists themselves, and what neglected aspects of Mead's arguments might still be of value to the Chicago sociological tradition, or at least help those interested in its potentials to raise leading questions about its basic arguments. In the concluding section of this paper, they suggest a number of questions which their interpretation of Mead's social theory raises for sociology.