SOC 3113 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Pragmatism, Behaviorism
Theoretical thinking in Sociology April 27th
Intellectual influences and core ideas
Pragmatism
• A uniquely American philosophical doctrine
• Most Europea philosophial shools orieted toard uoerig geeral Truths aout
human behaviors and/or motivations
• Pragmatism primarily concerned with
o Process of thinking
o And how it influences actions
o And the other way around
• Focused on meaning of behavior
• Meaning of ideas/objects/actions lie in practical aspects
o How they allow individuals to adapt to and solve problems
• Meaning is not intrinsic to the object/event/action
• Meaning is rooted in action- everyday practical conduct
• “oial orld is ot out there to e eperieed
o Istead it is a task to e aoplished Coser 977:35
• For example, what is the meaning of water?
o The meaning could be different from one situation from the next. Hydration, life
sustaining, drowning, cleanliness, cooling off and recreation.
• Capait for refleiit
o Experience self as a thinking, perceiving, acting subject and as a perceived object
• Kat proposed eistee of a tofold self or doule I
o Beig osious of oe’s self, the idiidual splits ito the I as sujet ad the I as
ojet
• Mead oerted Kat’s tofold self ito a distitio etee the I ad the e
o The I is the subject, the taker of action
o The me is the object, the thing being perceived by others
o I took the picture but the picture is of me
Behaviorism
• Mead disagreed with psychological behaviorism
o Resolutely empirical branch of psychology
o Proponents argue only overt, observable behaviors are open to scientific investigation
Social Behaviorism: Meads counterargument
• Theoretial fraeork alled soial ehaioris
• The id is ot a lak o iaessile to iestigatio Istead, the id is a behavioral
process that etails a oersatio of sigifiat gestures
The influences of social behaviorism
• We take the attitude of the other
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