Critical remarks to Mead's theory of intersubjectivity

pp. 31-42

in: Steven Vaitkus, How is society possible?, Berlin, Springer, 1991

Abstract

No doubt, in the presentation of Mead's conception of intersubjectivity which has been given above, it is obvious that many of the themes connected with the pragmatic strain of his work have not been explicitly taken up for analysis and belabored. Among other viewpoints, Mead did appropriate the pragmatic and it is one which does stretch throughout much of his life work. Hans Joas has devoted an excellent study to this particular aspect of Mead's work, in relationship to the problem of intersubjectivity, and has made the first attempts to work out a notion of what he has aptly termed "praktische Intersubjektivität".¹ However, Mead's work went well beyond the pragmatic viewpoint as is evident in the following passages.