The Structure of Relational Presentism

This article attempts to interpret George Herbert Mead’s social theory from the perspective of time. Mead’s unsystematic writing presents a dilemma because he begins by using the solipsistic duration as the foundation for his social theory of time. To solve this problem, this article reframes Mead’s theory as “relational presentism.” Although the duration of self implies an egoist orientation, it means that Mead stresses the conception of “present” by which he develops a relational approach to connecting his theory of time with that of self. This article builds connections between memory/past/me and anticipation/future/I to demonstrate this approach. Accordingly, the core argument of relational presentism is the relationality of self and time.