Phylogenetic and Ontogenetic Processes in Mead: A New Sociological Understanding of Self in Society

The legacy of G.H. Mead largely rests today on his conception of the self, on which most of the interpretations given to his social psychology have focussed; however, and strangely enough, his conception of society has remained in the meantime almost entirely ignored, or left unexplored in its fundamental determinations. In this paper, I want to argue that the concept of society has to be considered as the essential presupposition of Mead’s theoretical presentation of the self. By drawing attention to the concept of society at work in Mead’s evolutionary thought, I want to propose that the ontogenetic process of the formation of the self (in self-consciousness) relies on the phylogenetic process of the formation and transformation of society. These processes have then to be considered in their interrelation if we want to get a cogent sociological understanding of the self in society. As this interrelation between these two processes stands at the very core of Mead’s theoretical enterprise, it is also at stake in his reformist political vision of the (trans)formation of society by self-conscious individuals. Using schematic representations of these processes, I also insist in this presentation on both less known published and unpublished papers by Mead that establish the connexion between phylogenesis and ontogenesis in his thought.