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The Foundation of Pragmatic Sociology

Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead

University of Potsdam, Germany

Charles Horton Cooley was, according to George Herbert Mead, an idealist or mentalist for whom ‘imaginations’ and not ‘symbolic interactions’ are the ‘solid facts of society’. Contrary to Mead's critique, Cooley breaks through the Cartesian body–mind dualism in disagreement with idealism and behaviorism. His objective was to develop a theory of ‘communication’ and ‘understanding’ as the foundation of pragmatistic sociology. Communication is the decisive starting point of Cooley's and Mead's sociological theory of ‘social order’ and ‘social change’ as stages in the process of action. In conflict with each other actors must define the meaning of the objective, subjective, social and symbolic world. To overcome problems of action actors create generalized perspectives such as ‘human nature values’ (Cooley) or a ‘logical universe of discourse’ (Mead) which guarantee ‘socialization’ or ‘social order’ and ‘individualization’ at the same time.

Key Words: action theory • communication theory • pragmatism • symbolic interactionism • theory of social order and social change

Journal of Classical Sociology, Vol. 6, No. 1, 51-74 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1468795X06061284


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