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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| & >] = NS al "= ad Mm 1g of le ce n- at 7e = eS qy at wo IM cle (0- re- hea 18 or "Ow 1C- ‘VV. SOCIOLOGY 3" In these cases there is a more or less clearly defined subject- matter, but the character of the problems precludes the application of the method of science. Neither the existence of these problems nor the fact that man is a social animal is therefore a sufficient legitimation of a sociology which shall be a science and not a philosophy. To be a science, sociology must not only have a well-defined subject-mat- ter, but its specific problems must be capable of treat- ment according to scientific methodology.! This does not mean that sociology has to discover an object which has previously been unknown. What is char- acterized as an object in the most general sense is a com- plex of definitions and relationships. Each of these com- plexes, if discovered among a plurality of objects, may become the subject-matter of a special science. Each sci- ence rests upon an abstraction. It regards the actual total- ity of any given thing from the viewpoint of some specific concept. The totality as such cannot be grasped as a unity by any science. Each science results, therefore, from a de- composition of the unity of things and a corresponding division of labor; and, by virtue of this decomposition, the object is resolved into specific qualities and functions. This differentiation and division of labor occur according to a centralizing concept which makes possible the method- ological co-ordination into one subject-matter of the simi- lar factors and functions abstracted from different objects. In the presence of the highly complex facts of historical society, which cannot be interpreted from a single scien- tific viewpoint, the concepts “politics,” “economics,” and “culture” are indicative of such categories of cognition. They may combine certain parts of the facts, with elimina- tion of or merely accidental co-operation with the other + For the distinction between sociology and social philosophy, see Book I, chapter iv.

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