lesson 7 georg simmel robert wonser soc 368 – classical sociological theory spring 2014

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Lesson 7Georg Simmel

Robert Wonser

SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory

Spring 2014

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Simmel’s Life

Born in Berlin to a middle class Jewish family in 1858 which had converted to Christianity.

Simmel’s father died when Georg was very young, and he was not close to his mother.

Simmel experienced social marginality both in the family and in his academic life.

Simmel saw the social life of contemporary societies as creating social marginalization, but as opposed to Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, he saw this a having positive attributes.

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Simmel’s Life

Attended the University of BerlinDoctoral thesis on the philosophy of Immanuel

KantSimmel was in the midst of a thriving intellectual

German communityJews and radicals were marginalized from this

community – Simmel among themBecause he could not secure a permanent

academic position, Simmel became a lecturer – living off student fees

Lesson 7: Georg Simmel, Classical Sociological Theory

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Simmel’s Life

He became enormously popular among students and offered courses on a wide array of subjects – logic, ethics, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology

Simmel experienced anti-Semitism and the jealously of the academic community

Simmel finally became a full professor in 1914, only to die 4 years later


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Intellectual Influences: Max Weber

Simmel and Weber were very close friends and intellectual peers

Simmel disagreed with Weber’s search for historical particularities, and instead focused on invariant laws of social life

Simmel and Weber both offered challenges to the Marxian critique of the capitalist political economy


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Intellectual Influences: Herbert SpencerSimmel’s first sociological work: Social

Differentiation (1890) was indebted to Spencerian sociology

Simmel’s later work maintains this focus of the importance of differentiation and more importantly the relevance of social structures in social life


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Intellectual Influences: Immanuel KantKant is interested in what he calls “pure

reason” based upon a “categorical imperative”The “transcendental aesthetic” is that by which

human beings transform the buzz and chaos of the phenomenal world into meaningful order

This creates a “transcendental logic” whereby perceptual knowledge is transformed into conceptual knowledge


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Intellectual Influences: Immanuel Kantsense knowledge perceptual knowledge

conceptual knowledgewhat drives this process is a structured set of

categories which are embedded in the human mindwhereas Kant argues that structures exist in the

mind, Simmel modifies Kant’s argument by suggesting that structures exist in social relationships

Simmel asks the question – what are the basic forms of interaction, or structures which affect social action?


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Intellectual Influence: Karl Marx

Simmel argues against Marx’s labor theory of value – for Simmel the price of a product is based upon supply and demand, and social desire (social distance) The greater the difficulty in obtaining an object, the greater its value.

Simmel argues that alienation is natural in a society which is large, complex, and highly differentiated, and that competition is an important factor in the reduction of social alienation – free competition increases the free circulation of social exchanges

Money is not as oppressive commodity, as Marx contended, but is instead a generalized medium of social exchange which increases social interaction The ultimate tool


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Simmel’s Approach to Sociology

What makes sociology different from other disciplines? Isn’t it just an arbitrary label?

Simmel says no. Sociology is the study of social interaction

and the consequences of social interaction.


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Simmel’s three questions:What is society?How should sociology study

society?What are the problem areas of

sociology?


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Levels and Areas of Concern

1) Macroscopic assumptions about the psychological components of social life

2) Sociological components of interpersonal relationships

3) Structure of, changes in, cultural “spirit” of his times 1) higher levels emerge out of lower levels2) “if society is to be an autonomous object of an

independent science, then it can only be so through the fact that, out of the sum of the individual elements that constitute it, a new entity emerges; otherwise all problems of social science would be those of individual psychology”

4) Ultimate metaphysical principles of life

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Groups and the Forms of social lifeThe Geometric Metaphor: Focus on Form over Context

(goals, values, purposes, etc.)Sociology’s Problem Areas:General/Historical Sociology – focus on invariant

patterns of form (and content, while distinguishing both)Pure/Formal Sociology (generic social processes,

structured role relationships)Philosophical Sociology – (epistemological questions, or

metatheoretical questions) – what is the relationship between individual and society?


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The Web of Group Affiliations

How does social differentiation affect social relationships and networks of group life?

The most important variable is social differentiation.

Change from organic (local in-group) to rational (cosmopolitan)


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The Web of Group Affiliations

Consequences of social differentiation:role conflictrole strainmultiple identities and social uniquenessincreased personal freedomcognitive complexityEmpathy

social differentiation creativity social complexity


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Conflict

Conflict is generally seen as a destructive social force.

This emerges when one looks at the contents of the conflict

Conflict, however, is a social form which facilitates social solidarity

While Simmel argues that humans have an innate fighting instinct that is the cause of social conflict, conflict is best understood as a socially organized phenomenon.


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Conflict

The basic form of conflict: Generally, social conflict is oriented towards a goal/purpose.

Conflict within groups:With groups of strong similarity or personal connection

– conflict can emerge over very petty concerns, and these conflicts can be highly emotionally charged.

Differences can be a sign of personal and group threat.

Conflicts against accepted opponents can be direct or indirect (competition) – rule bound, “one unites in order to fight,” competition promotes social solidarity.


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Conflict

Conflict between groups:increases group centralization – “miserable

people loves miserable company.”increases social solidarity within each group

reduces the amount of tolerance for deviance and dissent.

increases the probability of coalition formation among similarly aligned groups.


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Philosophy of Money

the focus is on the establishment of social exchange relationships as a social form, in particular economic exchanges

Money is both a cause and consequence of social differentiation

Humans are teleological, and use many tools to accomplish their goals

Money is an incredible social tool because is it abstract, fluid, and subject to great manipulation

The use of money allows for an increase in the number of groups to which an individual can belong.


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Philosophy of Money

The value of an object is based upon supply and demand, upon the subjective/objective split.

Money becomes a standardized yardstick for the measurement of value, and is an extension of human nature

Money can become the value of anything – ethics, love, aesthetics, etc. – and thus can change or replace social relationships.


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Money

Money can become the value of anything – ethics, love, aesthetics, etc. – and thus can change or replace social relationships.Example: prostitution

How did Simmel feel about this ability of money?Money performs the interesting function of

creating distance between people and objects and then providing the means to overcome that distance.Another example of his dialectical thinking

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Philosophy of Money

Money and the Social Whole:

1)increases the velocity of exchange

2)value of money increases as does the perception that needs can be realized

3)creates options for social exchange and helps to create social continuity

4)allows for the creation of multiple ties

5)increases the distance of exchange Lesson 7: Georg Simmel, Classical Sociological

Theory

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Philosophy of Money

6) promotes trust, solidarity, and commitment

7) increases the importance of a centralized government (taxes)

8) taxes promote solidarity

9) penetrates all social relations

10)increase the quantification and objectification of social relations


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Philosophy of Money

Money and the Individual:1)increases personal freedom and choice

2)increases self expression through material acquisition

3)creates distance between self and material objects which can be discarded

4)money increases the multiplicity of social involvements, but reduces strong emotional ties

5)money mediates personal interaction


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More Money, more…

Problems arise because all these developments are at the level of objective culture and are integral parts of the process by which objective culture grows and further impoverishes individual culture.

Money is the purest form of exchange, process continues on in perpetuity (unlike in barter systems)

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Objective Culture and Individual (Subjective Culture)Cultural level of social reality, “objective culture,”

things that people produce (like art, science, philosophy, etc.)

People produce culture, but we can reify social reality, the cultural world and the social world come to have lives of their own, lives that come to dominate the actors who created and daily re-create them.

Over time objective culture exerts more control over the individual.

Individual (subjective culture) is the capacity of the actor to produce, absorb, and control elements of the objective culture.

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Objective Culture

Grows and expands in various ways:

1) Absolute size grows with modernization

2) number of different components of the cultural realm grows

3) Elements of cultural world become more entwined in an ever more powerful, self-contained world that is increasingly beyond control of the actors.

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Objective Culture

Simmel worried what would happen to individual culture…

“The total value of something increases to the same extent as the value of its individual parts decline.” (Simmel 1907/1978:199)

tragedy of culture

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More-Life and More-Than-Life

Simmel’s answer to Marx’s fetishism of commodities.People possess a transcendent abilityFirst, creative capacities (more-life), people are able to

transcend themselves.Second, this transcendent, creative ability makes it

possible to produce sets of objects that transcend them.What we’ve created (more-than-life) come in opposition to

more-life that produced objects in the first place.We’ve reified our individual cultural output into objective

culture which restrict further cultural output.Stifling them, like an iron cage almost…

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Urban Sociology

“Metropolis and Mental Life”Metropolis as the “genuine arena”

where objective culture comes to dominate individual culture.

It is where money lives…Creates the blasé and reserved

attitude


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Metropolis and Mental Life

The city is the “frightful leveler” where everyone is reduced to a rational calculating actor.

Cannot maintain individuality in the face of the expansion of objective culture.

Although, people are freer here than in small towns.

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Tragedy of Culture

Simmel saw the significance of the individual declining as money transactions become an increasingly important part of society and as reified structures expand.

The loss of individual subjective culture in the face of the expansion of objective culture

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Fashion

Conforming to fashion allows us to conform to the group

Fashion is also the norm if we wish to deviate that we depart from

Everyone accepts what is fashionable, then some deviate from this, creating a new sense of fashion. Process repeats ad infinitum…

Fashions are doomed to not last

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Social Geometry

NumbersDyad – group of twoTriad – three-person group

what effect does adding a third person do to the group?

Movement from dyad to triad is essential to the development of social structures that can become separate and dominant over, individuals.

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Social Geometry

Group size increases individual freedomAlso scares into retreating into small groups, like

the family.Distance “the properties of forms and the

meanings of things are a function of the relative distances between individuals and other individuals or things.”

“the stranger” is psychologically far but physically near

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Key Ideas

society is composed of exchange relationships – through money, conversation, symbols, friendship, love, conflict

conflict can be functionaldeveloped an interest in urban environments

and the social alienation they producethe modern world creates a blasé attitude“the stranger”


lesson 7 georg simmel robert wonser soc 368 – classical sociological theory spring 2014

Documents

community simmel

sociological work

georg simmelrobert wonsersoc

social differentiation

social lifelesson

social marginalization

social marginality

social relationshipssimmel