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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MONEY AND THE STYLE OF MODERN LIFE 241 ON eS 2L- ile .n- is 31- 1c ~t at- th- p- nd wn NR - ive In is ul- ul- 15 le, he ral ul- ral yb- 1ot ire "1 in the first place to the division of labor. It separates the laborer from his product. He makes only a part of an ob- ject, which, as such, has no meaning. It allows no self- expression and does not react back on the individual. His product is a fragment of an economic good, but not a cul- tural element; his production is an economic function, but not the creation of a cultural value. He becomes divorced from his product. In the field of consumption something similar occurs through the standardization of consumption goods. The cultural contents appear more and more as the embodiment of an objective spirit which faces as something external not only those who consume them, but also those who produce them. The immediate intimate reciprocity has disappeared, and so the personal culture can lag be- hind the objective culture. In certain fields of cultural life the opposite tendency is manifest. That discrepancy is visible in social institu- tions which develop only slowly and gradually and there- by lag behind the development of individuals. These cases are summarized in the following formula: The forms of production are overtaken by the forces of production which they develop themselves, and therefore no longer allow an adequate expression and functioning of these forces. The latter are largely of an individual character. What people are capable of producing and can rightfully demand can no longer be realized by the existing forms of technique. The transformation will follow only after these forces have amassed a sufficient energy to break through the inertia of the old forms; until that moment, the factual organiza- tion of production lags behind the development of the in- dividual economic energies. But these discrepancies are made possible by the divi- sion of labor and therefore, in the last analysis, by the money economy. Money makes possible a complete divi-

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