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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

CONCLUSION 265 and the society which molds him comes to be viewed in a half-mystical light. The eighteenth century—mechanistic, rationalistic, and individualistic—has tended mainly to- ward the first view; the nineteenth century—biological, idealistic, and collectivistic—toward the latter. The eighteenth-century view found expression in the different social-contract theories. The individual reigned supreme. Political society was his creation, the result of his conscious voluntary activity. It was a means to his end, be it liberty, justice, or the protection of property. The fact that the individual was the actual bearer and positive factor of the social structure was fully realized and led the social theorists to devote considerable attention to individ- ual psychology. The approach was from the individual toward the group, and the social or political structure was valued in terms of its significance for the individual life. The nineteenth-century view found expression in the organic theories of society on the one hand, and in the ide- alistic conceptions of the state on the other hand. The realization of the importance of environment in the biologi- cal studies reinforced this tendency to place the emphasis on society, the state, the group; in a word, on the social en- vironment rather than on the individual. He was merely a product of the social environment, a cell in the social or- ganism. The state was not a means to his ends; it was an end in itself. The approach was from the group toward the individual, and the individual was valued in terms of his significance for the social or political structure. Simmel’s conception may be regarded as a conciliation between the two. It leads to a viewpoint which brings the immediate realization of the necessity for reciprocity or at least constant alternation between the two modes of ap- proach. Viewed in the light of the tendencies of the nine- teenth century, his approach seems a return to the con-

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation