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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SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION 183 And it also enables the individual to participate more fully in the social life with all sides of his personality. During the Middle Ages the individual was also in many cases a member of different associations, but his re- lationships were much less determined by his individual characteristics. The Hanseatic League united different towns and enabled the individual citizen to participate in a field which extended far beyond the city limits. The guilds offered the individual a membership in associations which extended and co-operated throughout the country. But these social circles were concentric circles. The indi- vidual did not participate in the larger circle as an individ- ual, but as a member of an existing group. The new par- ticipation was not on the basis of any individual character- istic and did not lead to any intersection with existing circles. For that reason the result of these new associations for the individual existence was different from that of addi- tional associations in modern times. They did not lead to a fuller determination of the individual’s place in society, as they did not result from differentiations out of primary groups. This is accounted for partly by the fact that the individual devoted himself much more fully to his corpora- tion, and partly by the fact that the principle of union was a principle of equality. Only equals could combine and unite in corporations. Therefore the larger combinations were at first combinations of towns with towns, of con- vents with convents, and of guilds with related guilds. As members of corporations the individuals were equal, and only in so far as they were equal did the common bond exist in the larger groups. It did not exist in so far as they were individually differentiated. The individual as such in his individual uniqueness remained outside the larger union. It was not an association that attached itself to a differentiated individual characteristic.

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