Simmel, Georg
Simmel, Georg
(1858-1918) Occupying himself mostly with the reciprocal effects between individuals, he practically ignored the pioblem of the individual to the group. Calling attention to the psychical interactions as constituting the real foundation of community life, he stressed the reciprocity of relations. As alleged founder of the “formalistic” sociology, he regards the forms of socialization, the kinds of interactions of individuals upon each other as the distinctive subject of sociology. He defended in his earlier years a descriptive and relative, as opposed to a normative, absolutistic ethics. Subscribing to a metaphysics of life, he characterizes life as ceaseless self-transcendence. — H.H.
Main works
Problem d. Geschichtsphilosophie, 1892;
Philosophie des Geldes, 1900;
Soziologie, 1908;
Goethe, 1913;
Lebensanschauung, 1918.