Mead and the Ineffable

Abstract

Recent phenomenologically influenced sociology addresses, in part, the role of language in human activity and calls into question the capacity of language to fully objectify social processes. In this retrospective light the relation of language and experience presented in George Herbert Mead's Mind, Self and Society becomes increasingly problematic. In addition Mead's reference to meaning as an objective phenomenon and his conception of the "generalized other" bear re-examination.