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Mead's analysis of symbolic interaction with some implications for the understanding of social reality
Matej Černigoj
Full text (pdf) | Views: 12 | Written in Slovene. | Published: December 1, 2000
Abstract: The explanations of phenomena belonging to the domain of social reality have usually clustered around two opposing poles. Some authors considered them a mere reflection of the individual psychological characteristics of the society's members, while others considered them as being exclusively collective, thus transcending the level of individualistic psychology and explanation. Only a few authors, like G. H. Mead (1997/1934), saw that phenomena of social reality concurently shape the psychological characteristics of individuals and are produced in the process of their interaction. Such views were, however, condemned to misunderstanding, because the conceptual apparatus required for an efficient approach to the understanding of dynamical, self-organising systems, evolved only in the last decades. The aim of the article is to show how it is possible to explain the origin and the existence of the phenomena of social reality on the basis of some fundamental individual characteristics, while avoiding the pitfall of reductionism and not overlooking their transcendental nature.
Keywords: social reality, symbolic interaction, dynamical systems
