ABSTRACT
Ernst Tugendhat is generally in agreement with Mead's interpretation of the self as being integrated with society. He is particularly commendatory in his analysis of Mead's approach to the individual's appropriation of the rules (norms) of society. Tugendhat notices a similarity existing between Aristotle's understanding of community (koinonia) and Mead's 'generalized other' or 'organized community or social group'. The social and moral emphasis brought to bear upon the structure of the self, self-consciousness, and self-determination (self-assertion in Mead) by Tugendhat brings to the most work of Paul Ricoeur. Let turn to Ricoeur's treatment of the self in terms of narrative identity which is obviously highly dependent upon the temporal structure of the self as it engages in action. 'Character,', 'pattern', 'shape', or 'narrative identity' are hardly given to the agent or observer in some kind of instantaneous manner. To 'recognize' either one's own character or another's is to have had exposure to the personal history of the person in question.
