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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180 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL The individual is at first more or less completely ab- sorbed in the family group. It is a community group, an inclusive association of widely divergent elements. Later each individual enters into relationships with persons out- side of his circle on the basis of a similarity in character, tendencies, and activities. The association based on ob- jective coexistence is replaced by one which is based on subjective relations. The higher concept synthesizes what is common in a great many different phenomenal com- plexes. In the same way the practical viewpoint brings to- gether from different and unrelated groups individuals with similar interests. There arise new social circles which intersect the existing “natural groups” at different angles. Examples of this development may be found in many fields. The relatively independent groups which originally combined into universities were based at first on the na- tionality of the students. Later the students combined on the basis of common study, and the university became a combination of “faculties.” This was a radical replacement of a local or racial solidarity by a solidarity based on a common interest and purpose. A similar development, though more complicated in form, is visible in the history of trade unionism. The local organizations of workingmen have practically disappeared, and in their place have come srganizations based on the common trade or industry. This change is accompanied on the one hand by an in- crease in individual liberty. It does not abolish restraint, but it leaves the individual an element of choice as to what he shall be bound to, as to the association that shall exert that restraint. On the other hand, the new type of asso- ciation requires a greater active participation and thereby allows a more conscious expression of individual character- stics. These results are clearly visible in the changes in the

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