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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le al ot he We Nn 8 Ve 4 MM rer ir - ry ol- on £e 1l- 193 = me 1a- ns of of ate te- a si V- '\Cl- IS nd SOCIOLOGY AS DISTINCT FROM SOCIAL SCIENCES 51 social psychology. The latter is nothing but a special branch of general psychology. It deals with the same sub- ject-matter, namely, the forms of the psychological pro- cesses, and it is therefore not an independent science. The idea of a special social psychology and the efforts to justify its existence as an independent science are mainly due to an insufficient analysis of certain complex problems. The result has been the postulation of an independent superindividual mind whose manifestations were to be in- vestigated by social psychology. The objective psychical structures like law, religion, and morals, the unitary aspect of the results of collective activity, and the phenomena of crowd psychology have suggested the existence of a so- cial consciousness, a spirit of the times, a group mind, or a national conscience as actually creative forces and inde- pendent entities. A further analysis will show, however, that the question regarding a psychical bearer of these psychical phenomena of a superindividual nature is wrong- ly formulated. Laws, morals, and religion are products of mind, but their development extends far beyond anything contained in the individual mind, and in their entirety they are rela- tively independent of the individual’s participation. The language forms, the legal and moral norms, the dogmatic content of religions have a validity and dignity independ- ent of the individual applications. This validity, how- ever, still differs from the superhistorical validity of the laws of nature or of logic. But this validity of their con- tent is not a psychological occurrence which requires an empirical bearer. They are valid just as the Pythagorean theorem is valid, quite independently of the fact whether they are thought or conceived in the individual mind. As an objective mental content, language, law, and morals are not of a psychological nature. Neither is the

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