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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MONEY AND THE STYLE OF MODERN LIFE 239 ive ich bld rt, ile 1d- tly Je- ne ad- red in in us, nd ne- wl- Ha- ich its nts ge, and less the ha can va- -an- the WP - ~+d- ucts in special structures which gives them an independ- ence and a self-sufficiency which are in contradiction to their real cultural function. Once objectified, they tend to develop according to an immanent logic and a dynamics of their own. They continue to grow independently of the will of their real producers, and unrestrained by the limited degree in which further absorption can still take place. In their objective self-sufficiency they tend to lose their real cultural meaning. These cultural contents are produced by subjects and are meant for subjects. But in their intermediate objec- tive status they tend to estrange themselves both from their origin and from their purpose. Their development takes place independently of the meaning and significance which it may have for the subject. There results a tension between these forms and the continuous historical process which becomes manifest in a historical dialectic. This his- torical dialectic is but one form of expression of the dia- lectic that is inherent in all life and which results from the tension between the processes and the forms of life.! This tension in the cultural subject-object relationship may or may not lead to a rupture, but it is the fundamental tragedy of all culture that it bears within itself the element of self-destruction. If that rupture takes place, the objec- tive forms lose their cultural significance and become mere technique, mere civilization. The essence of culture is that subjective mental ener- gies obtain objective forms which are independent of crea- tive life-processes, but which are reabsorbed into the life- processes and so bring the bearer to a higher development of his central ego. This flow from subject through object to subject in which the metaphysical subject-object rela- tionship becomes historical reality can, however, lose its * See Introduction, pp. 19-20.

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