Abstract
This chapter will consider the five fundamental concepts of Simmel’s sociology—“life,” “interaction,” “form,” “sociation,” and “sociability”—and his thesis on the tragedy of culture. It will also delve into Simmel’s microsociology and the importance he gave to social interaction. An in-depth analysis will be dedicated to his theory on fashion.
Soon after, the text will explore Simmel’s theory on The Metropolis and Mental Life, where he investigates the relationship between modernity and calculability and the violence exerted by the metropolis on its inhabitants’ psyche, leading them to become “blasé.”
Simmel’s conflict theory will be the object of an in-depth exposition.
The last section devoted to Simmel’s critics will address three issues: Simmel’s tendency to contradict himself, his nationalism, and the reason for Lukács’s corrosive criticism.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alferj, Pasquale. 2003. La vita e le opere di Georg Simmel, in Georg Simmel, Ventura e sventura della modernità. Antologia degli scritti sociologici. Pasquale Alferj and Enzo Rutigliano, eds. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.
Aron, Raymond. 1964. German Sociology. Mary and Thomas Bottomore, trans. New York: The Free Press.
Barry, Ben. 2014. Expanding the Male Ideal: The Need for Diversity in Men’s Fashion Advertisements. Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 1 (3): 275–293.
———. 2015. The Toxic Lining of Men’s Fashion Consumption: The Omnipresent Force of Hegemonic Masculinity. Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 2 (2–3): 143–161.
———. 2018. (Re)Fashioning Masculinity: Social Identity and Context in Men’s Hybrid Masculinities through Dress. Gender and Society 32 (5): 638–662.
Bedeschi, Giuseppe. 1970. Introduzione a Lukács. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Bergmann, Werner. 1992. The Problem of Time in Sociology: An Overview of the Literature on the State of Theory and Research on the ‘Sociology of Time’, 1900–82. Time & Society 1 (1): 81–134.
Cavalli, Alessandro and Lucio Perucchi. 2019. Introduzione a Georg Simmel. In Filosofia del denaro, ed. Alessandro Cavalli e Lucio Perucchi. Milano: Ledizioni.
Collins, Randall. 2008. Violence. A Micro-sociological Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Coser, Lewis A. 1977. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Dal Lago, Alessandro. 1983. Introduzione a Georg Simmel. Forme e giochi di società. Problemi fondamentali della sociologia. Milano: Feltrinelli.
Durkheim, Émile. 1933. The Division of Labor in Society. George Simpson, trans. Glencoe: The Free Press.
Featherstone, Mike. 1991. George Simmel: An Introduction. Theory, Culture & Society 8 (3): 1–16.
Frisby, David. 1984. Georg Simmel. In London. New York: Tavistock Publications.
———. 1992. Sociological Impressionism. A Reassessment of Georg Simmel’s Social Theory. New York; London: Routledge.
Fuchs, Stephan. 1991. From Theory to Critique of Modernity. The Development of Simmel’s Sociology. Michigan Sociological Review (5): 1–18.
Georg, Simmel. 1965. The Aesthetic Significance of the Face. In Id., Essays on Sociology, Philosophy, and Aesthetics. Kurt H. Wolff, ed. New York, Harper & Row, 276–281.
Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1996. Georg Simmel on Philosophy and Culture. Postscript to a Collection of Essays. Critical Inquiry 22 (3): 403–414.
Hawking, Stephen W. 1988. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam Books.
Honigsheim, Paul. 1965. The Time and Thought of the Young Simmel. In Essays on Sociology, Philosophy, and Aesthetics, ed. Kurt H. Wolff. New York: Harper & Row.
Kern, Stephen. 1983. The Culture of Time and Space 1880–1918. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Leopardi, Giacomo, 1935. Letter to Pietro Giordani del 2 marzo 1818, in Id., Epistolario. Nuova edizione ampliata con lettere dei corrispondenti e con note illustrative. Vol. I. Francesco Moroncini. Firenze: Le Monnier.
Lewis, J. David, and Andrew J. Weigert. 1981. The Structures and Meanings of Social Time. Social Forces 60 (2): 432–462.
Lizardo, Omar. 2012. Review: The Resilience of Life: On Simmel’s Last Testament. Contemporary Sociology 41 (3): 302–304.
Lukács, György. [1954] 1981. The Destruction of Reason. Peter Palmer, trans. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
Lukács, Georg. 1991. George Simmel. Theory, Culture & Society 8 (3): 145–150.
Lyotard, Jean-François. 1985. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979). Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, trans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Mele, Vincenzo. 2020. Georg Simmel and the Metropolitization of Social Life (161–178). In The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory, ed. Peter Kivisto. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Michels, Robert. [1911] 1915. Political Parties; A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. Eden & Cedar Paul, trans. New York: Hearst’s International Library Co.
Orsini, Alessandro. 2015. Are Terrorists Courageous? Micro-Sociology of Extreme Left Terrorism. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 38 (3): 179–197.
———. 2021. Teoria Sociologica Classica e Contemporanea. Torino: Utet.
Podoksik, Efraim. 2016. Neo-Kantism and Georg Simmel’s Interpretation of Kant. Modern Intellectual History 13 (3): 597–622.
Poggi, Gianfranco. 1993. Simmel. Money and the Modern Mind: Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rensi, Giuseppe. 1999. Postfazione to Georg Simmel. Il conflitto della civiltà moderna. SE, Milano: Milano.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. 1969. The World as Will and Representation. E. F. J. Payne, trans. New York: Dover Publications.
Simmel, Georg. 1904. Fashion. International Quarterly 10 (1): 130–155.
———. 1910. How Is Society Possible? The American Journal of Sociology 16 (3): 372–391.
———. [1911] 1949. The Sociology of Sociability. The American Journal of Sociology 55 (3) 254–261.
———. 1950a. The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Kurt H. Wolff, ed. and trans. New York: The Free Press.
———. 1950b. Fundamental Problems of Sociology (Individual and Society). In Id. The Sociology of Georg Simmel, ed. and trans. Kurt H. Wolff. New York: The Free Press.
———. 1957. Fashion. The American Journal of Sociology 62 (6): 541–558.
———. [1909] 1965. The Problem of Sociology. In Id., Essays on Sociology, Philosophy, and Aesthetics, ed. Kurt H. Wolff. New York, Harper & Row.
———. [1911] 1968. On the Concept and the Tragedy of Culture. In Id., The Conflict in Modern Culture, and Other Essays. K. Peter Etzkorn, trans. New York, Teachers College Press.
———. [1903] 1971a. The Metropolis and Mental Life. In Id., On Individuality and Social Forms. Selected Writings, ed. Donald L. Levin. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. [1904] 1971b. Fashion. In Id., On Individuality and Social Forms. Selected Writings. Donald L. Levin, ed. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. 1971c. Freedom and the Individual. In Id., On Individuality and Social Forms. Selected Writings, ed. Donald L. Levin. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. 1971d. Subjective Culture (1908). In Id., On Individuality and Social Forms. Selected Writings, ed. Donald L. Levin. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. 1971e. Exchange (1907). In Id., On Individuality and Social Forms. Selected Writings, ed. Donald L. Levin. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. 1971f. Conflict (1908). In Id., On Individuality and Social Forms. Selected Writings, ed. Donald L. Levin. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. [1892] 1977. The Problems of the Philosophy of History: An Epistemological Essay (1892). New York: Free Press. Guy Oakes, Ed. and Trans. Lukacs, György. 1981. The Destruction of Reason. Peter Palmer, trans. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
———. 1985. Il volto e il ritratto. Saggi sull’arte. Lucio Perucchi, ed. Bologna: il Mulino.
———. [1907] 1986. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Helmut Loiskandl, Deena Weinstein, and Michael Weinstein, trans. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
———. [1890] 1998. La differenziazione sociale. Bruno Accarino, ed. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
———. [1904] 2004. Kant. Sedici lezioni berlinesi. Milano: Unicopli.
———. 2010. Life as Transcendence (1–18). In id., The View of Life: Four Metaphysical Essays with Journal Aphorisms, trans. John A. Y. Andrews and Donald N. Levine. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Vozza, Marco. 2003. Introduzione a Simmel. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Weingartner, Rudolph H. 1962. Experience and Culture; The Philosophy of Georg Simmel. Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press.
Wolff, Kurt H. 1950. Introduction to Georg Simmel. In The Sociology of Georg Simmel, ed. and trans. Kurt H. Wolff. New York: The Free Press.
Wundt, Wilhelm. 1886. Ethik. Eine Untersuchung der Thatsachen und Gesetze des sittlichen Lebens. Stuttgart: Enke, 1886.
Zerubavel, Eviatar. 2020. The Sociology of Time. In Time, Temporality, and History in Process Organization Studies, ed. Juliane Reinecke and others, 44–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Orsini, A. (2024). Georg Simmel. In: Sociological Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52539-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52539-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-52538-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-52539-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)