The social Theory of Georg Simmel

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1024612627

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-166627

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Spykman, Nicholas J. http://d-nb.info/gnd/124229867

Title:: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Place of publication:: Chicago

Publisher:: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: XXIX, 297 S

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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PREREQUISITES OF SOCIALIZATION 81 LF kA N f a of 18 (le Is eo 1 1e peculiar distortion in the ideas and representations which individuals have of one another. The pictures which human beings form of one another are not the result of pure sense impressions, but modifications of the actuality. In the first place, there is a tendency toward generalization which makes us see another as a type. We think of a man, not primarily in terms of his individuality, but in terms of a group or a class, in terms of a category which does not fully cover his identity and with which he is not fully iden- tical. We know a man, not in his pure individuality, but as exalted or degraded by the general type under which we subsume him. Even of his purely individual side we form a picture which is not identical with the actuality, but rather with what he would be were he completely his ideal self. We create out of fragmentary data about his personality the complete picture of a fully realized individuality. This tendency operates within the already existing so- ciety as the a priori of further associations and socializa- tions between individuals. Within certain social spheres, classes, or groups, individuals view one another, not from a purely empirical standpoint, but on the basis of the a pri- ori that the fact of belonging to a certain group gives the individual definite mental characteristics. In the circle of scholars, officers, church members, civil servants, and members of families, each individual regards the other un- der the natural presupposition that he is a member of the group. We see the individual, not simply as an individual, but as a colleague, a comrade, or a fellow-partisan, as an inhabitant of the same specific world as ourselves. The same thing occurs in the relation between individuals of different groups. The civilian who meets an officer cannot divest himself of the thought that the officer is a military man, and views him in that light. These unavoidable, quite automatic presuppositions are the means by which

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