Messages from Georg Simmel

Copyright

Contents

Introduction

1. The Message of Interpretation

Humanities versus Natural Sciences

The Operation Called Verstehen

The Controversy about Pragmatism

Simmel versus Conventional Philosophy

The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy

Simmel’s Critique of Subjectivist Pragmatism

Tension between Culture and the Individual

2. The Message of Change: Society Evolves Over Time

Evolution and Darwin’s “Theory of Descendency”

Change as Differentiation and Individualization

Competition promotes Evolution

Alternative Theories of Evolution

3. The Message of Interaction: How Reality is Constructed

Sociology as the Study of Interaction

Society Emerges in Interaction

Religion as Interaction

Strangeness as Form of Interaction

Encounters between Alien Populations

The Stranger as Innovator

4. The Message of Alienation: Money and Politics

Money as a Paradigm of Cultural Processes

Evaluation and Alienation

Construction of Value in Interaction

Money as a Means of Exchange

Socialism as Result of a Forming Process

Socialism on Happiness

Machine – Factory – Government

5. The Main Thrust of the Messages contra Marx and Weber

Simmel’s main Thrust against Marx

Simmel’s main Thrust against Weber

6. Background of the Messages: Intellectual Influences

The Platonic Socrates

Plato’s Eternal Ideas

Spinoza

Kant

Dilthey

Summary: Statements about Simmel’s Method

Appendix 1: Biography of Georg Simmel

Appendix 2: Simmel’s Autobiographical Fragment

References

Index