Chapter5: Georg Simmel (1858-1918) Born in Berlin

Chapter5:Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

• Born in Berlin

• Wealthy family

• Popular in US, which is where his work was of great importance to the birth of sociology

• His ideas weren’t welcomed by scholars in Germany

• Disliked his style of writing

Learning Objectives

• After reading this chapter, students should be able to:

• name the four levels of concern in Simmel's thought;

• provide examples of forms and types of social interaction from Simmel's work;

• explain how group size and social distance affect social interaction;

• describe the role of social structure and objective culture in Simmel's thought;

• provide a Simmelian analysis of the role of money in society, describing how money affects value, how money facilitates the rationalization of society, and the negative effects of money on social life;

• define the tragedy of culture;

• outline the main criticisms of Simmel's work

Chapter Outline

• I. Primary Concerns

• A. Biographical Sketch

• B. Levels and Areas of Concern

• C. Dialectical Thinking

• D. Fashion

• E. Individual Culture and Objective Culture

• F. More-Life and More-Than-Life

• II.  Social Interaction ("Association")

• A. Interaction: Forms and Types

• B. Social Geometry

• 1. Numbers

• a. dyad and triad

• b. group size

• 2. Distance

• C. Social Types

• 1. The Poor

• D. Social Forms

• 1. Superordinate and Subordinate

• 2. Social Forms and Simmel's Larger Problematic

• III.  Objective Culture

•   V. The Philosophy of Money

• A. Money and Value

• B. Money, Reification, and Rationalization

• C. Negative Effects

• VI. Tragedy of Culture

• A. The Tragedy of Culture in Its Broader Context

• VII. Criticisms

•   IX. Summary

Background

• Simmel’s first effort at a dissertation was rejected and one of his professor’s said that they would do him a great service if they did not encourage him any further.

• In 1855 he became a private lecturer in Berlin where he lectured on a wide variety of subjects and became extremely popular among his students and the cultural elite from Berlin.

• Simmel wrote over a hundred essays and a large number of volumes

Background

• It was nearly thirty years before Simmel was offered the position as a professor of philosophy in Strasbourg

• Simmel faced slow advancement in academic rank compared to his great reputation as a speaker and a thinker because:

• He was of Jewish decent and was victimized by anti-Semitism
• His ideas attracted students and cultural elites but they were not welcomed by senior scholars in Germany who favored heavy topics: the book mentioned that they may have been jealous of Simmel…

Georg Simmel

• Simmel thought that his work was misunderstood and even went as far to say that it was his fate for his work to be misunderstood

• His work mostly centered on the positive: a deeper insight into the world and spirit

• Simmel was very active in cultural events in Berlin; Cofounder of “German Society of Sociology” with Weber and Teonnies

• Married to a woman named Gertrud who published works herself on subjects such as religion and sexuality

Influences

• Darwin and Spencer

• Spencer-evolutionary and differentiation
• Darwin- superiority ( not species battle for superiority, but more human battle for superiority)

• Kant- “how society is possible” to explain how nature was possible

• Marx- self- alienation to apply to dualism of life

Concepts and Contributions

• Rejected “organic” theories of Comte and Spencer

• Society is not an abstract creation

• Society is made of group interaction vs. individual interaction

“Formal Sociology”

• Society as a process

• Society is real “patterns”

• Unique events throughout history share a series of patterns

• Groups

• Studied patterns that make these events happen or as he coined it “forms”

• “Forms” can be organizations, relationships, rules that impact and govern the individuals of a society

• In connection with “forms” he studied “contents”

• Contents are considered to be the drives, interests, purposes that drive individual behavior

Social Types

• Simmel created “social types” which characterized different individuals within a society

• Each type needs to be present in order for society to exist

• Examples of types include: “the stranger”, “the spendthrift”, “the mediator”, “the adventurer”, “the renegade”背叛者, and “the poor”

Dialectical Thinking

• Facts and values

• Rejects concrete dividing lines between social phenomena

• Focuses on conflict and contradiction

• World is best understood in term of conflict

Social Geometry

• Simmel sought to understand the make-up and bond within social relationships

• Dyad

• A relationship that involves two individuals
• Ex. Best friends, lovers, married couples
• A dyad represents the strongest bond
• No formal structure within the relationship
• Each experience by either individual impacts the other
• The relationship ceases to exist if either member departs

Social Geometry cont.

• Triad

• A social group consisting of three equal members
• Indirect relationship that can both assist and hinder reciprocity within the group
• The group can survive if one member drops out, thus forming a new dyad
• The introduction of the third person, can help and hinder the relationship of other group members
• This person can become a mediator, can use the group to advance their own selfish agenda, and can use existing conflict to divide the group and take it over

Superordination and Subordination

• The most important relationship that can exist is that of the leader and the followers

• This relationship must be reciprocal
• Followers must be in a position to follow all rules set forth by the leader
• Certain personal freedoms must always be afforded to followers in order for the leader to be successful
• This relationship must be structured as a dyadic affiliation, if a third member is introduced the structure is immediately weakened

Secrecy and The Secret Society

• Secrecy, according to Simmel, is one of man’s greatest achievements

• In order to form a relationship secrets must be shared amongst members, but certain elements will always remain secret

• By exposing secrets to another, we place ourselves at risk of betrayal

• Secret Society is a shared confidence in secrets communally known

• As these societies increase in size greater awareness is placed on hierarchy and rituals performed by members to show allegiance
• Examples include: Elks Lodge, Free Masons, Fraternities, and Sororities

Philosophy of Money

• Simmel’s thoughts on money are still very relevant and often quoted even today

• Economic exchange = social exchange

• Money is a social tool

• Once money is introduced it represents a growth of the sophistication of the society

• Money creates distance from objects, but at the same time provides a means to attain the object thus overcoming that distance

• Simmel was concerned with the problem of money in society and tribulations created by money

• These problems were the result of a larger issue going on within the greater society itself

Exchange

• Exchange is the purest form of human interaction

• In all exchanges someone is giving up certain material or value they have attained for something entirely different

• Value + Exchange = inseparable

• Value is determined by comparing it to an object that has already been assessed with a value

Mass Culture- “ Metropolis and Mental Life”

• Isn’t a concept but is reflected by his works

• Tension

• 1.Emotional Reserve- self- protected device to shield an individual from urban life

• Maintain a certain emotional distance

• 2. Attachment to Personal Freedom- emotional indifference individuals in a metropolitan area exhibit to one another

• 3. Extreme Individuality- metropolitan individual needs do something drastic in order to attract social attention

Relevancy

• Macro- level Simmel paid little attention to social structure

• Showed society as a real entity, and not merely an abstraction.

• Forms do exist and are subject to systematic analysis

• Creation of social types are forms of interactions

• Superordinate/subordinate (employee/boss)

• Philosophy of money- economic system of exchange

Kataloq: jpkc3 -> fxy -> xfshxll -> kejan
kejan -> Chapter 8: Sociological Theory of Vilfredo Pareto
kejan -> Chapter3: Herbert Spencer Main points a biographical Sketch