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.

THE CONCEPT OF SOCIETY 29 1d ® ‘“W ] = AP iv Je X, sk Ve at Pa he if Fo nt ad "c= [n in to SW b- ke ch ~0- af The essence of group unity, then, consists in the re- ciprocal relations of its elements, and a group or a society may be said to exist where individuals are in reciprocal relations. The reciprocity arises always from specific impulses or by virtue of specific purposes. Erotic, religious, or merely associative impulses, purposes of defense or of at- tack, of play or of gain, bring human beings into relation- ships in which they act for, with, and against one another. They bring them into situations and conditions in which they mutually influence one another. These mutual re- actions signify that out of the individual bearers of those impulses and purposes a unity, that is, a society, has come into existence.! That social unity is not the result merely of harmoni- ous tendencies and integrating forces, but the differen- tiating tendencies play also a positive role. Just as the cosmos needs love and hatred, attractive and repulsive forces, to obtain form, so also society needs a certain quantitative relation of harmony and disharmony, associ- ation and competition, friendship and jealousy, to obtain a definite structure. And these dissociations are by no means to be viewed merely as negative factors, so that the actual society results only from the positive social forces in so far as the former do not prevent it. It is a superficial way of thinking which concludes that the one factor tears down what the other builds up and that what at last re- mains is a subtraction. Society as it exists is the result of the two categories of interaction, which are both positive in their effect. The above-mentioned misconception is partly due to a false conclusion drawn from the observation of a simple opposition between two individuals. It by no means fol- 1 Soz., D. 5.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation