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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CONCLUSION 261 between individuals, and, conscious of the fact that with the change in emphasis to the functional aspect of social life the method of analogy had lost its usefulness, he advo- cated an actual first-hand study of the processes of inter- action. He did not overindulge in his own medicine, how- ever, and his work has many of the shortcomings of the organic school, but among much that is obsolete today there is much that has a very modern sound. In Germany, where he has been not only talked about but actually read, he exerted a great deal of influence and definitely prepared the way for the psychological point of view. This change in viewpoint was largely determined by the important development in the field of psychology in the second half of the century. Out of the school of Her- bart in Germany came the work of Waitz, Lazarus, and Steinthal in ethnological psychology, and indirectly the work of Bastian. Within this group the concept of the fun- damental psychological nature of society found complete expression. It took in some cases the form of a conceptual realism, and the Zeitgeist, the social mind, the spirit of the people, was sometimes thought of as an entity with onto- logical existence; but this was a preliminary philosophical formulation which was later changed to a formulation in terms of functional relationships. The important contribu- tion of this group was their rejection of analogy as a meth- od of study. They did not free themselves completely from its influence, as their realistic conceptions show, but they undertook at least an actual investigation of group con- duct and of group feeling on the basis of a comparison of historical appearances. A similar change of emphasis appeared in France, also influenced by a renewed interest in psychological study. Folk psychology did not find the same amount of accept- ance as it did in Germany. The work of Taine, which most

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