The Role of Abstract Reference in Mead's Account of Human Origins.

The article discusses the account of human origins by pragmatist George Herbert Mead specifically his account of the evolutionary emergence of thinking and the contributions of American philosopher John Dewey to such account. Mead suggests that abilities and not genes are the focal units of biological and cultural evolutionary explanation. Dewey's concept of experience which is a full-fledged interactive process in its own right is consistent with Mead's notion of act. Absolute idealism is revealed through Mead's account of freedom, moral consciousness and subjectivity.