Abstract

In contemporary society, we seem to want to discuss the ideas of community, caring, sociality, and concern for our cultural health. What we do not have, however, is a grounding, cultural or philosophical, for claims of interconnectedness and community. ;Even with an understanding of the biological dependence of one organism upon others, we often fail to make cultural connections when we explore ideas of our interrelatedness. This work will explore the truth and philosophical implications of an understanding of the "self" as rooted in what will be termed a "social ecology." In order that we might better be able to understand the relationships between ourselves and others, what is needed in philosophy, and culture, is a "relocation" of the self. The philosophies which offer what I consider to be the best foundation of a conception of the self are classical American pragmatism, especially the work of George Herbert Mead; and feminism, including an important contribution to theories of social behavior--the feminist ethics of care. ;Chapter one is an attempt to clarify the problem of a mistaken and dangerous view of the individual, especially as it is conceptualized in historical and contemporary ethical and political theory. Chapter two will present the core of a view of the self as irreducibly embedded in a social ecology through the philosophy of Mead who perhaps offers the most comprehensive view of the self as social. Chapter three will involve a more specific view of the ethical and political considerations of selfhood and society as suggested by pragmatists John Dewey and Jane Addams. Chapter four will explore contemporary feminism as it seems to grow out of and enhance ideas seen in earlier pragmatist social theory. Finally, in chapter five, particular problems of socialization, especially as they plague women and other traditionally oppressed groups, will be treated from the perspective of pragmatist feminism