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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132 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL The Dyadic Group That such apparently individual qualities as isolation and freedom are in reality sociological relationships can, however, be pointed out only by referring to indirect and complicated connections. The simplest sociological for- mation is therefore the reciprocity which occurs in the case of the interaction between two elements. That the dyadic group has a typical sociological form is evident from the fact that the most divergent individuals uniting for the most varied motives will show combinations of the same formation. And not only is this form character- istic for pairs of individuals, but it is identical in the case of an association between pairs of groups like families, states, or combinations of various sorts. Its specific character is determined by the fact that for the participants the relationship does not appear as a special structure over and above them. It may appear to an outsider as an independent, superindividual unity; this is not the case for the individuals concerned. They are aware of the fact that it rests immediately upon the one and the other. The whole does not obtain a superpersonal life independent of its bearers. The group ceases to exist if one individual departs, which is not the case with com- binations of more than two elements. The individual has not beside him a multiplicity of other individuals which ultimately constitutes a higher unity. He has beside him only one other individual, and the dependence of the whole apon himself and his co-responsibility for all collective action is more clearly visible. He cannot hide behind the group either in omission or in commission, and the result is that the individual enters into the relationship with a much greater part of his personality than is the case in large groups. The dyadic group, in contrast with all other groups of more numerous elements, is characterized by the

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