The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Bibliographic data

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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0 ar or 1e Ne NE De. 4 ha 1 30 A= IR as al vy = ly RN Yom IA P= m ne 18 le- “iq he ve. ht als of n Hf SUBMISSION 105 the family merely undertook to execute its commands. Customs and mores rather than subjective preference be- gan to guide his acts and decisions, and from being the sole lord of the family property he became its manager in the interest of the whole. Thus the relationship between su- periors and inferiors is placed on a new basis. The family as a whole is thought of as standing above all the individ- ual members, and the ruling patriarch himself has become subordinate to its objective principle. He can command the other members, but only in the name of that higher ideal unity. This leads to a very interesting sociological constellation, the subordination of the superior to the laws which he gives himself. The growth of an objective principle to which both the superior and the inferior have to subject themselves finds in modern times its fullest expression in the economic world. The personal element has largely been withdrawn from the relationship between employers and workmen. It is no longer a relationship of personal service, but it has become a sale of a certain amount of labor power. The results of this modern development have been, on the one hand, an objectivation of the actual relationship and, on the other hand, the growth of a production technique which sets objective norms and demands to which both amployer and workmen are subject. The subordination to an impersonal principle gives, therefore, to the individuals concerned a peculiar double relationship. The fact that as a group they are imbued with a single spirit or subject to a single objective principle gives them in their relations to outsiders a more or less equal position. Within the group, on the other hand, they stand to one another in different relationships of superiority and inferiority. This double aspect of their formal sociolog- ical situation colors their whole social life. An employee

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