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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240 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL continuity. The object can break loose from its position as intermediary and destroy the bridge over which passes the road of cultivation. The metaphysical question regarding the subject- object relationship finds here a historical answer. While the metaphysical answer to that question usually main- tains that a sharp opposition and contrast between them is incorrect, the concept of culture implies a complete opposi- tion of the two parties. It implies a supersubjective logic of these mental products by means of which the subject transcends itself in order to reach itself. The great task of mind, to conquer the object by creat- ing itself as object and to return to itself with this enrich- ment, often succeeds. But it must pay for this self-develop- ment with the tragic chance that these independent and self-sufficient worlds may develop with a logic of their own which will withdraw them farther and farther from the pos- sibility of cultural reassimilation. The style of social life is characterized by the relative proportion between objective and subjective culture. In small groups under primitive conditions, the relation is nearly a one-to-one correspondence. The objective cul- tural possibilities do not greatly outrun the subjective cul- tural values which are actually realized. With an increase in the cultural level and an extension of the culture circle, the two will grow apart. In large groups, only a part of the objective values become subjective values. The cultural possessions of the group are much greater than the cul- tural possessions of any single individual. The cultural creation of each single individual still enters into the ob- jective social culture, but the totality of the latter does not enter completely into the former. The subjective culture lags behind the objective culture. This differentiation and objectivation of culture is due

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