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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102 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL ner, the employees are usually better off than those in the small private concerns who are subject to the personal ex- ploitation of the proprietor. On the other hand, in special cases of distress the administration of the corporation can- not act as generously as the private owner who is not re- sponsible to anyone for his management. Subordination to a group is therefore an advantage to the individual if he is helped by a formal, impartial, factual, and business-like relationship. Itis a disadvantage if the individual is helped by a benevolent, altruistic, and merciful relationship. Subordination to a crowd, to a group actually assem- bled, varies also considerably from subordination to an in- dividual. In organized associations which function as legal persons, the participation of the superior in the relation- ship loses the personal elements and obtains more rational, superpersonal elements. In crowds, the participation of the superior loses also the personal elements, but this time it obtains infra-individual collective emotional elements. It is this fact that explains the merciless cruelty of the Roman circus public, of the medieval religious persecu- tions, and of the modern lynching parties. On the other hand, crowds are sometimes capable of great enthusiasm and magnanimity.} Subordination to an Impersonal Principle Subordination to an impersonal principle or a law does not involve a reciprocity. The individuals who do not obey a law are not really subordinate to that law. If they change it, they really abolish the old law and put a new one in its place. In so far as they are subordinate to the new law, they feel themselves determined by it, but they do not de- termine it. Modern people who have learned to differen- tiate between the field of spontaneous activity and that of 1 Soz., pp. 172-77.

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