MEAD'S MULTIPLE CONCEPTIONS OF TIME AND EVOLUTION: THEIR CONTEXTS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES FOR THEORY

Abstract

Mead's views of time are inextricably linked with his conceptions of evolution. Besides an abstract scheme and a content scheme bearing on evolution, at least nine temporal themes appear in Mead's writings: 1) evolution as an enduring, continual process; 2) control over the future course of human evolution; 3) evolution as a developmental process; 4) evolution as emergent, open-ended, continuous; 5) evolution, freedom, the future, and continuity with the past; 6) evolution as a moral process; 7) evolution as the increasing enlargement of the scope of moral social consciousness; 8) evolution as increasing social differentiation, complexity and integration; 9) evolution: emergence of the novel, time as process and perspective. These themes are differentially in focus with various publications, depending on the substantive issue being addressed. The themes may not be mutually consistent, but hang together in terms of Mead's total philosophical argument about evolution and civilisational progress. All of Mead's topical discussions are embedded in a temporal-evolutionary context.