The Philosophy of George Herbert Mead (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 411 Sources represents the culmination and full flowering of Bergson's thought." The book is divided into eight chapters plus a conclusion, the first four analyzing the intuition of duration, intuition as a new method of philosophy, and the "evolutionary background of morality." Then in four chapters Mrs. Gallagher gives a rich, detailed and objective interpretation of Bergson's solution of the moral and social problems of action, especially those difficult questions of the creation of moral and religious values, and of the relations between the so called "heroes and saints" and their followers. A "select bibliography" is based on a thorough and deep knowledge of Bergsonian researches and, more generally, of French philosophical trends throughout our century. My only suggestion would be that, after her remarkable introduction to Bergson's philosophy , Mrs. Gallagher should devote another book to a more interpretive analysis, and develop some of the directions she mentions in her conclusions concerning the central and basic problem of intelligence. As for me, I would look for a Bergsonian philosophy of language based upon the duality of "word" and "ineffable," from which derive the positive and negative functions of intelligence. Mrs. Gallagher discusses accurately the rather formal and academic problem of whether Bergson is anti-intellectualist. Bergson knew very well that his books are a direct product of intelligence, since they are made of words and phrases highly intellectual and systematic. Thus the role of philosophical intelligence is ultimately negative, a transposition of the "negative way" of mysticism. Such is its role when a philosopher is confronted with the problem of action: How can intelligence explain human action without betraying it? Then I would emphasize, more than Mrs. Gallagher has done, the deep opposition to Kant, and consider that one of the most important intentions in writing The Two Sources of Morality and Religion was to sweep out the Kantian influence which pervaded French official values after 1870 and continues today, in spite of Henri Bergson's gallant fight. EDOUARD MOROT-SIR University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ghe Philosophy of George Herbert Mead. Edited by Walter Robert Corti. (Amriswiler, Switzerland: Amriswiler Biicherei, 1973. Pp. 261. $5.45) The essays published in this volume are the proceedings of a seminar on Mead held in 1970 under the auspices of the Archiv fiir genetische Philosophie, Winterthur, Switzerland. The editor, Dr. Walter Robert Corti, who is Director of the Archiv, contributes a short introduction in which he views this and other seminars as illustrative of the work in international studies to be undertaken by an Academie at present under construction at Amriswiler , Switzerland. Except for Dr. Corti and two others, the remaining nine contributors to the present volume are Americans, many well known for their work on Mead and pragmatism. The essays are uneven in value regardless of how stimulating all of them may have been for seminar discussion. There are, however, a number of substantial contributions interpreting Mead's "social behaviorism," pointing out how Mead's ideas relate to other pragmatists and philosophers such as Whitehead whom one does not usually recognize as having much impact on the tradition of pragmatism. Indeed, one of the most interesting aspects of several of the essays is the extent to which Mead drew on Whitehead for his theory of "process" and his conception of the "present." Also Mead's doctrine of the self and its origin in social life relates him to phenomenological philosophers who have emphasized the need of "the other" in the formation of the self and consciousness. Illustrative of the range of topics treated in these essays and among those this reviewer found most interesting were "Mead's Theory of Universals" by David L. Miller, "Mead's Formulation of the Dispositional Theory of Meaning" by Peter List, and "Mead's Ethical 412 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Theory" by John Albin Broyer. David L. Miller also contributes a valuable biographical essay on Mead, and John Albin Broyer's bibliography supersedes all previous bibliographies of Mead's works. Mead clearly emerges in these central essays as a philosopher worthy of more attention than he has received. Although the presentation of Mead in this volume is primarily expository , it will...