Georg Simmel
Typology: Sociation
Simmel defines sociability as, "the play-form of association, driven by, friendliness, breeding, warmth and attractiveness of all kinds. In order for this free association to occur, Simmel says, "the personalities must not emphasize themselves too individually with too much recklessness and aggressiveness. He also describes, "this world of sociability...a democracy of equals...without friction," so long as people blend together in a spirit of fun and affection", "bring about among themselves a pure interaction free of any disturbing material accent. As so many social interactions are not entirely of this sweet character, one has to conclude that Simmel is describing a somewhat idealized view of the best types of human interaction, and by no means the most typical or average type.
Simmel's Paradigm/Bias: "Sociation"
(1858 - 1918)
THEORIES
Georg Simmel rejected the organicist theories of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer and German historical tradition. He did not believe that society can be viewed as a thing or organism as Auguste Comte or Spencer did. For him society is an intricate web of multiple relations between individuals who are in constant interaction with one another society is merely the name for a number of individuals connected by interactions.
Simmel introduced the term sociation that he believed to be the major field of study for the students of sociology. Sociation implies the particular patterns and forms in which human beings relate to each other by interacting. According to him society is nothing more than all the individuals who constitute it. He has also drawn attention to the fact that people in groups of different sizes interact differently from each other. A qualitative change in terms of organization takes place with the increase in number of persons in a group.
- Levels of concern
- Dialectical thinking
- Individual consciousness
- Sociability
Background
Gerog Simmel, was born in 1858 in Berlin, Germany. The sociologist is known for his contributions to sociology and philosophy. Simmel received his PH.D at the University of Berlin where he wrote his dissertation on neo-Kantianism. A philosophy coined by Immanuel Kant a German philosopher and scientist, this laid the foundation for Simmel’s theory “antipositivism”, asking “What is society?” in a direct allusion to Kant’s Kantianism theory “What is Nature”. From 1885 to 1914, the University of Berlin employed Georg Simmel as an unpaid lecturer and then an honorary professor. In 1914, the University of Strasbourg gave Simmel a paid professorship in philosophy. Simmel gained reputation for his skill in lecturing. Georg Simmel was prolific in his production of articles that covered a variety of topics including sociology, art, esthetics, ethics, history, psychology, and literature.
Unfortunately, Simmel’s recognition opened him to the criticism of being a dabbler, perhaps lacking in overall expertise. This criticism and an anti-Semitic undercurrent in the academia of Germany hindered his professional development. From 1889 to 1909, Georg Simmel founded the German Sociological Association. Gaining the reputation of being more of a sociologist than a philosopher. Simmel hated this and viewed sociology as a subsidiary field of study to that of philosophy.
Simmel returned to his primary intellectual interest philosophy in 1905 when he published one of his renowned works the problems of the philosophy of history and eight years later the philosophy of money. Simmel’s the philosophy of money was his most pivotal work, Georg Simmel identifies currency as "a social function become a substance." He furthers this concept by locating the instability of money, its ability to be transmitted with the dissatisfaction and impulse for movement in Modernity. He argues that money is a cause and effect for the contemporary world. Ultimately, Simmel puzzlingly identifies money as dependent on freedom, but also as a source of separation (classes). This work met with mixed reviews. Emile Durkheim derided the work as unproven, yet Max Weber praised the importance of the theory and observations.
Major Works
- On Social Differentiation, 1890
- The Problems of the Philosophy of History, 1892
- Introduction to the Science of Ethics, 1892-1893
- The Philosophy of Money, 1900
- The Metropolis and Mental Life, 1903
- The Stranger, 1908
- Sociology: Investigations on the Forms of Sociation, 1908
Influences
• Max Werber
• Immanuel Kant
• Friedrich Hegel
• Ferdinand Tönnies
Questions & Answers
Critique/Analysis
Sociology, to Simmel, did not tend to the subject matter of economics, ethics, psychology, or history rather yet it concentrated on the forms of interactions (sociations) that motivated political, economic, religious, and sexual behavior. But Sociology as I know it studies all social behavior, including its origins, development, associations, ethics, psychology, organization, economics, ethics, and institution to develop a full body of knowledge/understanding about social order, social disorder, and social change.