Objective meaning
The formation of self in Mead and Sohn-Rethel
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2301180 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Magnus Granberg (0000-0002-5065-8973, Mid Sweden University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 34-46 |
| Publication date | 2019-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Acta Sociologica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-6993 • E-ISSN: 1502-3869 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0001699317749286 |
| OpenAlex | W2782891945 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 13 |
This analysis of the work of George Herbert Mead and Alfred Sohn-Rethel compares their respective accounts of the formation of the self. The analysis proceeds from two important similarities: the effort to understand self-consciousness not as primordial but as the product of social processes, and the view that these processes form a circuit: the self arises from consciousness' return to itself, concluding a movement whereby consciousness is first externalized onto objects and then internalized, taking on the insular shape of self-consciousness. What sets the two accounts apart is the site from whence the self returns: objects. In Mead, the self returns from meaningful objects, and this same (intersubjective) meaning is entangled with the process of self-formation. In contrast, for Sohn-Rethel, the self returns from objects whose meaning is not established intersubjectively but objectively: the self is the unintended consequence of commodity exchange. In Mead, interaction among people affords meaning to objects and thus evokes the self; in Sohn-Rethel, interaction among commodities evokes an objective meaning that renders people as selves. Interpretative sociology should attend to the objectively and unconsciously meaningful forms analyzed by Sohn-Rethel. To illustrate this conclusion, reference is made to a certain experience of the social under neoliberalism
Consciousness · Epistemology · Meaning (existential · Self · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
Money and the Early Greek Mind
Forces of Labor
A Behavioristic Account of the Significant Symbol
The Genesis of the Self and Social Control
The reflex arc concept in psychology.
Intellectual and Manual Labour
Sohn-Rethel and the Origin of ‘Real Abstraction’
Brief History of Neoliberalism
The Division of Labour in Society
Materialism without matter
Mind, Self, and Society
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |