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 267 understanding of the factual contents of social life requires two modes of approach. Only through the reciprocity or the alternation between the historical method and the method aiming at general timeless laws can we reach an understanding of the social actuality. The task of sociol- ogy has been described by him as the determination, the psychological explanation, and the tracing of the historical development of the forms of socialization. It is true that he bas given more attention to the first two than to the last, but there is usually a short treatment of historical development in his essays on social forms. This investiga- tion of the historical development, however, is for the dis- tinct purpose of reaching, in combination with the inquiry aiming at general timeless laws, a complete understanding of the actual sociological structure. If, therefore, the criti- cism of his neglect of the historical dimension implies that he has not conceived the investigation of the historical development as an end in itself, it contains a statement of fact. But, far from considering this fact a weakness, it would seem to us rather a valuable contribution, if only as a reaction against the one-sided emphasis on historical development in the social sciences in the nineteenth cen- tury. During this period the social sciences, and especially sociology, have suffered from an overemphasis on the his- torical dimension. They were so much imbued with the spirit of social philosophy and the philosophy of history that Barth could consider sociology and the philosophy of history as identical. The historical investigation as an end in itself has a value and significance only as history. From the point of view of science, it has a value only as a means, not as an end. It is useful only in so far as it per- mits the discovery of the general timeless correlation which is the aim of science.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation