The social Theory of Georg Simmel

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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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QQ 4% 1 ee f 11 T= oe <Q 5 oe | - ea 'Q ~f ee + SOCIOLOGY AS DISTINCT FROM SOCIAL SCIENCES 53 in actuality the psychic motivation may have been a dif- ferent one in each individual. A third factor which seems to justify the existence of a separate social psychology over and against the individu- al psychology consists in the qualitative differences which exist between the feelings, actions, and ideas of individuals when in a crowd and when by themselves. The individual in a crowd seems to become a new entity, which differs qualitatively from the solitary person. But, in the last instance, one still deals with the behavior of individuals, simply in this case with the behavior of individuals who have become influenced by the fact that they are surround- ed by others and who undergo modifications in their nerv- ous, intellectual, and moral responses. If these modifica- tions, mutually interacting, change all members of the group in a similar way, then the collective behavior will be different from the behavior of the single individual. But that which is of a psychological nature in this be- havior remains none the less of an individual psychological nature. The collective behavior is merely the synthesis of the individual actions. What are compared are two things under different conditions: on the one hand, that which is uninfluenced by others, and, on the other hand, that which is influenced by others. Both things, however, occur in the individual mind and take place in the individual con- sciousness. There is therefore no necessity for postulating for the one side of the comparison a superindividual mental entity. As a problem of social psychology there remains then only the following: What modifications does the mental process of an individual undergo when it occurs under definite influences from the social environment? But this problem is a problem of general psychology and therefore of individual psychology. As a branch of general psycholo-

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