La Hongrie de l'Adriatique au Danube

The social Theory of Georg Simmel

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 844773522

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-50582

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Tissot, Victor http://d-nb.info/gnd/117628085

Title:: La Hongrie de l'Adriatique au Danube

Place of publication:: Paris

Publisher:: Plon

Year of publication:: 1883

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (412 S., [12] Bl.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapitre XVIIII

Collection:: Economics Books

196 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL spirit or mere social disapproval to maintain a conformity to desired social behavior. The undifferentiated authority of a group over its mem- bers, however far it may extend, must always leave a large part of the individual life outside of its scope. This field is left to the individual’s free arbitrary will, and he is often the more free in that field in proportion as he is restricted in his group life. The Roman or the Greek citizen was severely restricted in his political life, but as master of his house he had unlimited power. The primitive savage was completely bound up in his tribal community, but com- pletely free in his behavior to outsiders. Tyranny finds its correlative in a complete license in those fields which it does not reach. The modern social structure yields a better proportion of freedom and restraint. The arbitrariness of the central- ized authority and of the individual have both diminished. The latter was at first a compensation for the undifferen- tiated restraint of the collective power. With a decrease in the first, there followed a decrease in the latter. The more the individual as a whole was freed from social restraint, the more did he voluntarily bind himself in the separate aspects of his personality. The more he became freed from the authority of the all-inclusive group, the more did he freely bind himself in other social circles. He found social bonds and lived a social life with those sides of his person- ality which up to that time had expressed themselves in a purely individualistic behavior. This correlation is of a formal sociological nature. It holds good for all aspects of social life independently of their content. It is illustrated by the fact of the existence of a vigorous associative life in countries with great political freedom, as well as by the fact of the formation of numerous sects among religious communities which lack a strong hierarchical system.

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