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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ri- ad g. ds n= he ar 11 en ne or- as ice or he ne- ive elr ith di- efi- (ue nd- ite MONEY AND THE STYLE OF MODERN LIFE 233 length, so that the purpose of an hour’s activity lies far be- yond that hour and sometimes even beyond the sphere of the individual’s vision. This extension of the teleological series is in the first place due to the introduction of money. It creates a cen- tral interest over and above otherwise unrelated activities and thereby brings them into mutual relationships. After the introduction of money, the gains of one undertaking, and thereby that undertaking itself, can become the means to another enterprise—a thing which was impossible as long as the two were unrelated. On the other hand, money, because it is generally conceived as a purpose and an end, thereby degrades many things to means which are really ends in themselves. Money, because it is everywhere and for everybody both an end and a means, links all the con- tents of life into teleological relationships. These relationships come to be expressed in terms of objective exchange values, and thereby come to be woven into a large system of factual contents which resembles the system of the causal relationships of the natural order. It is held together by the function of the all-pervading ex- change value as the latter is held together by the all-per- vading energy. In the relations between man and the natu- ral order, objective knowledge and impersonal intelligence have taken the place of emotional attachments and per- sonal feelings, and in a similar fashion the practical social world has since the introduction of money become more and more a problem for intelligent activity and less and less an object for emotional attachments. This correlation between the significance of money and of intelligence for modern life is first of all manifest in a negative aspect. Both lack character. Both are merely functions. Intelligence is the indifferent mirror of the ac- tuality in which all elements are pictured with complete

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