Never before published, this book features George Herbert Mead 's illuminating lectures on the Philosophy of Education at the University of Chicago during the early 20th century. These lectures provide unique insight into Mead 's educational thought and reveal how his early psychological writings on the social character of meaning and the social origin of reflective consciousness was central in the development of what Mead referred to as his social conception of education. The introduction to the book provides an overview of Mead 's educational thought and places it against the wider social, intellectual, and historical background of modern educational concepts.

Never before published, this book features George Herbert Mead 's illuminating lectures on the Philosophy of Education at the University of Chicago during the early 20th century. These lectures provide unique insight into Mead 's educational thought and reveal how his early psychological writings on the social character of meaning and the social origin of reflective consciousness was central in the development of what Mead referred to as his social conception of education. The introduction to the book provides an overview of Mead 's educational thought and places it against the wider social, intellectual, and historical background of modern educational concepts.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) had a powerful influence on the development of American pragmatism in the twentieth century. He also had a strong impact on the social sciences. This classic book represents Mead's philosophy of experience, so central to his outlook. The present as unique experience is the focus of this deep analysis of the basic structure of temporality and consciousness. Mead emphasizes the novel character of both the present and the past. Though science is predicated on the assumption that the present is predictable based on a thorough knowledge of the past, the experience of the present, says Mead, is an utterly unique moment comparable to no other, and when it is past the novel character of that unique experience is irrevocable. The emergence of novelty within the perceived rational order of reality is the crux of the problem that Mead explores. The present, in his words, is "the emergent event . . . something which is more than the processes that have led up to it and which by its change, continuance, or disappearance, adds to later passages a content they would not otherwise have possessed." The present as "the seat of reality" heavily conditions our retrospective view of the past as much as it helps to shape the future. The novelty of every present experience causes us to reconstruct our preceding experiences to make sense of the past, which is naturally assumed to be the main cause of what we presently experience. Our perspective on reality is thus relative to the conditioning of each new event and it changes continuously as the effects of the present shift our view of the past and future. This emphasis on the integrative, holistic nature of reality, in which everything past, present, and future is a condition of everything else, makes Mead's philosophy highly relevant to today's scientific picture of a quantum universe, where chance and probability play a role in the emergence of reality. Also of great interest is the way in which he extends his basic analysis of temporal-spatial reality to the emergence of mind and consciousness as a natural development of the evolutionary process. This stimulating and provocative work attests to John Dewey's praise of Mead as "the most original mind in philosophy in America" of his generation.

George Herbert Mead is widely recognized as one of the most brilliantly original American pragmatists. Although he had a profound influence on the development of social philosophy, he published no books in his lifetime. This makes the lectures collected in Mind, Self, and Society all the more remarkable, as they offer a rare synthesis of his ideas. This collection gets to the heart of Mead's meditations on social psychology and social philosophy. Its penetrating, conversational tone transports the reader directly into Mead's classroom as he teases out the genesis of the self and the nature of the mind. The book captures his wry humor and shrewd reasoning, showing a man comfortable quoting Aristotle alongside Alice in Wonderland. Included in this edition are an insightful foreword from leading Mead scholar Hans Joas, a revealing set of textual notes by Daniel R. Huebner that detail the text's origins, and a comprehensive bibliography of Mead's other published writings. While Mead's lectures inspired countless students, much of his brilliance has been lost to time. This definitive edition ensures that Mead's ideas will carry on, inspiring a new generation of thinkers.

'The Corpus Hermeticum' is a collection of second or third century treatises that have survived intact the systematic destruction of the early Catholic Church.Given mainly in the form of a dialogue between Hermes and a human interlocutor, the writings reveal knowledge of the origins, nature and moral properties of the divine, and (on the principle of 'as above, so below, as below, so above') of humanity and all other spiritual beings. Using this sacred knowledge, humanity can rise above the material and enter the realms of the gods. 'The Corpus Hermeticum' is a foundation document for all students of the Hermetic tradition.

The only collection of Mead's writings published during his lifetime, these essays have heretofore been virtually inaccessible. Reck has collected twenty-five essays representing the full range and depth of Mead's thought. This penetrating volume will be of interest to those in philosophy, sociology, and social psychology.
"The editor's well-organized introduction supplies an excellent outline of this system in its development. In view of the scattered sources from which these writings are gathered, it is a great service that this volume renders not only to students of Mead, but to historians."--H. W. Schneider, "Journal of the History of Philosophy"