The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Bibliographic data

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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THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE GROUP 205 3 Ln oe N - 2g Lh il X IA 8 1} iS oF the family. It appears at one time as an inclusive social circle absorbing the whole of the individual, but clearly separate and distinct from all other families. Later it ap- pears as a more narrow social circle capable of functioning as an individual unit in a wider social circle. The patri- archal family, despotic and closely knitted, was self-suffi- cient from the economic and the military point of view. The modern small family is more highly individualized, but combines as a unit in the wider social circle, such as the state or the nation. In the modern complicated social structure, consisting of a great series of ever widening social circles, there arises with regard to each of these circles a similar problem of ap- parent sociological ambiguity. If there exist only two dif- ferent social circles, the respective positions of the individ- ual in these circles can easily be compared. In case of a great many circles, the situation becomes more complex. In that case, each circle except the largest has an inter- mediate position between a larger and a smaller one. It functions in its relation to the larger circle as a unit with individual characteristics, in relation to the smaller ones as a complex of a higher order. The correlation formerly referred to was a correlation between the individual ele- ment, the small circle, and the large circle. In the complex social structure of modern civilization, we observe that a single social circle can partake of the characteristics of all the three factors in the correlation, depending on the rela- tion in which it is viewed. This does not impair in any way the truth and the value of the correlation. On the con- trary, it proves that it is of a purely formal sociological character completely independent of any specific content. If there exist in social structures, apart from the indi- vidual units, small but complex circles and also large cir- cles, the first and the last appear to be drawn together in

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