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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64 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL That the term “historical law” has a very different meaning from that of natural law is evident. It is merely a formulation for the relation between conceptual unities treated as a single phenomenon without any regard for the actually effective forces within the composing elements. Historical laws are special laws, laws for occurrences within special fields which are conceived as separate from and in- dependent of the single elements on the one hand and the wider cosmic circle on the other. They result from an ex- treme simplification of very complex material on the basis of presuppositions which imply a social and historical re- alism, a conception of certain phases of social and histori- cal life as unities of independent reality. Appearances of considerable internal difference are com- pared and treated as if they were identical. The state, re- ligion, culture, the forms of production, the position of women, and innumerable other concepts of identical logical content are observed in certain relations which, because they are repeated, are considered inevitable. But no two of these cases are actually identical. The law which is de- duced from the observation of one situation and its results is in reality valid for only that one case. Without an in- vestigation into the single elements, we can never be sure that the actual forces do not lie just in those factors in which the cases differ, and we can never be certain that the differences are not more fundamental than the similar- ities. The observed correlation between conceptual unities which result from a synthetic view of pluralities of coex- istent phenomena does not yield any information regarding the actually effective elements and gives no guaranty of repetition. The historical law does not go down to primary forces; and this is even more evident in those laws which profess to explain the historical development of social in-

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