‘A theoretical basis for practical work in the social sciences:’ Clifford Geertz’s undergraduate encounter with George Herbert Mead

Following his service in the Second World War and prior to his graduate studies at Harvard, Clifford Geertz, Jr. (1926–2006) studied at Antioch College, where he wrote two substantial works, including a thesis titled G.H. Mead: Social Positivist (1949–50). This chapter examines Geertz's unpublished thesis and the intellectual context in which he developed it, beginning with his experiences at Antioch. While much of the thesis aligns with midcentury Mead scholarship, Geertz offers an innovative analysis, arguing that Mead provided a comprehensive pragmatic philosophy of science capable of integrating disparate social psychological and social psychiatric research. Geertz further suggests that these research approaches could elaborate Mead's insights empirically. Analyzing this early work offers a new perspective on intellectual preoccupations that would later define Geertz's career as a social scientist, anthropologist, and intellectual, and suggests directions for subsequent research.