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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120 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL possession of a great many common qualities and char- acteristics. The second is the consensus which is due to a common participation and absorption in a unitary social group. The first contributes to the bitterness of the con- flict because an opposition between elements which have otherwise much in common receives by contrast a strong light and leads to profound subjective reactions. The sec- ond contributes to the bitterness of the conflict because there arises a social hatred in addition to the personal hatred. In some cases falling under this category the separation is not the result of a conflict, but the conflict is the result of the separation. There will then be an antagonism be- tween the parties not only on account of the difference in attitude toward the issue in question, but also on account of the fact that each considers the other as an enemy of the group and a danger to its unity. The resulting bitterness will be strongest in the cases in which the actual dismem- berment of the group has not yet taken place or is unlikely to take place. If the dissociation has taken place, it signi- fies a partial termination of the conflict. The individual difference has found its sociological termination, and the stimulus to constantly renewed friction is removed. The tension which results from the combination of this dualism and unity can be resolved only by complete unity or sepa- ration. Where the latter is impossible, the efforts to obtain the first will be made with greater strength. Hence the severity of the actual struggle. It is an ordeal to live in enmity with a person to whom one is nevertheless bound and from whom one cannot be freed even if one desires a dissociation. A similar situation arises if an individual is unwilling to give up or incapable of giving up his member- ship in a group whose unity he values as an objective good and for whose persistence he feels that he must fight and

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