No part of it, except the last two Supplemental Essays, was intended for publication in the form in which it now appears. Chapters One to Four are the Carus Lectures as read at the Meeting of the American Philosophical Association at Berkeley in December, 1930. They had not been planned as more than a partial statement of a more extensive project. Unfortunately, Mr. Mead, in his capacity as chairman of the department of philosophy at the University of Chicago, was forced to surrender the time he had set aside for the completion of the lectures to administrative concerns of an unexpected and disturbing character. By the end of January he was seriously ill and he dies within a few weeks.
All footnotes are additions to the original manuscript.
Murphy added three essay fragments found among Mead's papers that are believed to be preliminary drafts for the Carus Lectures. The index to this work was prepared by Mr. F.K. Ballaine. Mind, Self and Society from the Perspective of a Social Behaviorist. The best known of Mead's works, Mind Self and Society , also has the most contentious history. None of the material here used has been previously published.