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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ty ra- his ra- he at er lly ke oe OT ly dy n- 18) or FO i1S¢€ of ax- a at ate a “he ia- ni- act res - is. SOCIAL CONSERVATION 167 therefore, also on the fact that the change is sufficiently slow and gradual. This form of gradual change not only is operative in case of shifting membership, but functions in a similar manner with regard to the other elements of group unity. We still speak of “the same group” even when its political organization, its laws and customs, have altered consid- erably. This is possible because the alterations do not af- fect all the vital elements of the group life simultaneously, but only a minimum at a given moment.! Objectivation of the Group Unity in Symbols The group unity and its persistence may find objective expression in personal, material, and conceptual symbols. If the life of the group becomes intimately bound up with the existence of leadership, special arrangements are re- quired to secure the self-preservation. In national groups this finds expression in the principle that the king never dies. It involves the very significant sociological concep- tion that the king is no longer king as a person, but that his person is only the irrelevant vehicle of the abstract kingship. The group will then reflect its immortality in a hereditary kingship. This hereditary principle is purely formal in nature and may bring to the throne the most capable as well as the most incapable leader. This principle is possible only if within the group a relationship between ruler and ruled has become fixed and permanent, only if it does not de- pend any longer on subjective relationships, but has be- come a status. As long as this aspect of the group form is still uncertain, the supreme leader can hold the group to- gether only through definite personal qualities. But if this form has become established and secure, the personal ele- -Soz., pp. 501-4.

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