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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118 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL who, while being wholly personal, is capable of keeping his own person in the background. The impersonal and ob- jective character of such struggles therefore lends them a certain nobility. But, once the differentiation is accom- plished and the struggle objectified, there is no further re- serve. Any moderation would be not only inconsistent, but a treason to the cause. On the basis of the consensus between the parties that each fights merely for the issue at stake and without personal considerations, the struggle is fought out without personal bitterness, but also without any moderation which might result from the intermingling of personal elements. This form of antithesis between unity and antagonism intensifies conflict most perceptibly perhaps in cases where both parties actually pursue the same interest. This is the case, for instance, in scientific controversies, in which the issue is the establishment of some truth. In such a case any concession, any polite consent to stop short of the full exposition of the errors of the opponent, any conclusion of peace previous to decisive victory, would be treason against the factual objective issue for the sake of which the personal element was to be excluded. Social struggles have often taken this form. This has, for instance, been the case with the class struggle since Marx. Since it has been recognized that the position of the wage-earner is determined by the objective forms and characteristics of the economic system independently of the power and the will of individual persons, the personal bitterness incident to the general struggle and the local conflicts has much diminished. The entrepreneur is no longer thought of as a bloodsucker and a damnable egoist. The laborer is no longer assumed to act merely from sinful greed. Each party is ceasing to interpret the other’s tac- tics and demands in terms of mere egoism and malevolence.

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