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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110 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL their existence is justified by the fact that the psychologi- cal differences between individuals create them, and by the fact that the technique for the realization of social pur- poses requires them. The motive for abolishing them re- sults from the fact that the social superiority or inferiority is felt as a personal superiority or inferiority. The superior or inferior position in one social relationship is felt as a su- periority or inferiority of the whole personality. There would, however, be no reason to abolish the sociological relationships if this psychological by-product could be avoided. This might presumably be the case if the rela- tionships within the social structure became wholly objec- tified and allowed a complete withdrawal of personal feel- ings and sentiments from the impersonal social functions. Something similar is already happening in the relation- ships in the economic world. The feeling of personal supe- riority and inferiority resulting from the social relation- ships may also disappear if a further social differentiation and integration creates a structure in which the individual is at the same time in a great many superior and inferior sositions. Apart from the foregoing difficulty resulting from the existence of superior-inferior relationships, there exists a problem of even wider import. Originally these relation- ships were the immediate expression of psychological dif- ferences between individuals. In modern society the or- ganization of the group has taken definite shape, and a great many of these relationships have become objectified in a more or less fixed social structure. The result has been the formation of a relatively fixed system of superior and inferior positions which are to a large extent independent of the individuals that hold them at any given time. They have not created these positions, they merely fill them. On the other hand. the stratification of society in classes

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