Present, Past, and Future

Abstract

Time is of utmost importance in the writings of George Herbert Mead, the American pragmatist philosopher and social psychologist. Yet, despite Mead's prominence as the primary source of the symbolic interactionist approach to sociology, most social scientists are unfamiliar with his perspective on temporality. We describe his analysis of the present, the past, and the future - emphasizing that, for Mead, people live in the present, and that their interpretations of the past and the future are shaped by the present. In addition, we consider the implications of his perspective for our understanding of the self, interaction, and society.

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