educated

fashion

form

gift

gratitude

ideal spheres

money

objective culture

perhaps

ruin

secrecy

social type

society

sociology

subjective culture

triadic segregation

nationality

German

occupation / innovator as

philosopher

sociologist

Neo-Kantian

innovator in the field of

critical race theory

philosophy

religion

atheism

sociology of religion

intellectual movement

Neo-Kantianism

university teacher

is a means of responding to both the need for cohesion or union and the need for differentiation or isolation.

Fashion is indeed an excellent means of achieving both these effects, responding to both the need for cohesion or union and the need for differentiation or isolation (Simmel 1971/1904). In following fashion we align ourselves with some people and differentiate ourselves from others, but at the same time we enjoy expressing ourselves in a common language that is widely understood.

is a metaphor for the allure that 'newness' exerts on the modern subject in general, and on the bourgeoisie and the middle classes (who aim to exaggerate their social position) in particular.

For Simmel fashion is also a metaphor for the allure that 'newness' exerts on the modern subject in general, and on the bourgeoisie and the middle classes in particular. Indeed the social position of the middle classes predisposes them to fashion, in contrast to the nobility, the bourgeoisie cannot rely on tradition and established styles and, unlike less well-to-do classes, they hope to better their social position and to find their own style.

is the mode of interaction among the components through which the content attains a social reality.

Around 1908 Simmel [5] introduced, into social sciences, the 'separation of form and content' in explaining conflicting social phenomena. Although his ideas have been criticised regarding many aspects of society, it seems to be a very promising way of explaining especially certain social institutions which have geometric and spatial dimension such as urban environment and architecture. He defines form as the mode of interaction among the components through which the content attains a social reality. In that sense, separation between form and content becomes an instrument of analysis to access the totality of matters through their components. Apparently, Simmel's emphasis is not on the abstracted character of the forms from specific social realities but rather on the process of abstracting. Thus, content is not ruled out. Simmel's formal sociology and related methodologies should be considered quite illuminating in the

is unsurpassable when given first, because the first gift is given voluntarily and no matter how much our own return gift or service may objectively or legally surpass his own, it can never be made up.

Once we have received something good from another person, once he has preceded us with his actions. . . we no longer can make up for it completely, no matter how much our own return gift or service may objectively or legally surpass his own. The reason is that his gift, because it was first, has a voluntary character with no return gift can have (Simmel 1950:392 in Ogasawara 146).

Gratitude is the moral memory of mankind.Georg Simmel

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is colorless, coming only evenly in a flat and grey tone, serving as the neutral mediator in an impersonal market.

His 1900 book, The Philosophy of Money, defined money as 'colorless,' coming only in an 'evenly flat and grey tone,' and serving as the neutral intermediary of a rational, impersonal market.'

is not in itself a valuable substance. It is the material expression of the exchange relationship, a social function become a substance.

This view is most pronounced in Simmel's treatment of money and of society. For Simmel money is not in itself a valuable substance and therefore exchangeable for objects of all sorts... it is, on the contrary, essentially the action of exchange in a concrete form, the material expression of the exchange relationship, a social function become a substance [see Interaction, article onsocial interaction].'

is the basis of impersonal social relations and allows financial relations to replace personal obligations.

The development of a money economy contributes to individualization both directly and indirectly, by stimulating the growth of large and purposive groups. Money is the basis of impersonal social relations and permits the substitution of financial for personal obligations. Of all types of obligation, a merely financial one is most compatible with a maximum of personal freedom-although this is, of course, freedom only in the negative sense, or potential freedom, which must be used for personal development. As money makes the individual independent of particular persons and groups, it stimulates the formation of associations for limited and specific purposes and hence contributes to the growth and multiplication of groups with the attendant individualizing effect.'

is the most perfect representative of a cognitive tendency in modern science as a whole: The reduction of qualitative determinants to quantitative ones.

Indeed, for Simmel, money is 'the most perfect representative of a cognitive tendency in modern science as a whole: The reduction of qualitative determinants to quantitative ones,' the best 'example . . . of the modern emphasis on the quantitative moment' (Simmel, 1978, pp.277, 279... emphasis added).

is discussed in terms of attraction/repulsion in coquetry.

is not merely something which signals decay but it is also a certain imaginative perspectivism in its hopeful and tragic dimension.

According to Simmel, ruins are the opposite of the perfect moment pregnant with potentialities... they reveal in 'retrospect' what this epiphanic moment had in 'prospect.'4 Yet they do not merely signal decay but also a certain imaginative perspectivism in its hopeful and tragic dimension. Simmel saw in the fascination with ruins a peculiar form of 'collaboration' between human and natural creation: 'Nature has transformed the work of art into material for her own expression as she had previously served as material for art.'5' (net)

is triadic in nature. It concerns the three activities of concealing, keeping hidden, and revealing, and involves three parties: Two who share the secret and a third who does not.

That is why, following a lead from the German sociologist Georg Simmel, secrecy in antiquity as an object of study is most often said to have a 'triadic' nature: the three activities of 'concealing', 'keeping hidden' and 'revealing' knowledge involve, in turn, at least three parties: two people who share the secret and a third party, the ones who do not know it. (dict. of gnosticism 'secrecy 1050)

is a typification such as 'the adventurer' or 'the renegade' which is formed through the assigned expectations of others and thus becomes an aspect of the social structure.

along with 'the stranger,' he describes in great phenomenological detail such diverse types as 'the mediator,' 'the poor,' 'the adventurer,' 'the man in the middle,' and 'the renegade.' Simmel conceives of each particular social type as being cast by the specifiable reactions and expectations of others. The type becomes what he is through his relations with others who assign him a particular position and expect him to behave in specific ways. His characteristics are seen as attributes of the social structure.'

is neither a substance, an organism, nor an irreducible real entity. It is nothing but the sum total of the interactions and interdependencies between individuals-whose unity in turn is constituted only by the interaction between parts.

Simmel similarly rejected the view that society is a substance, an organism, an irreducible real entity. Society is nothing but the sum total of the interactions and interdependencies (the German term Wechselwirkung implies both) between individuals-whose unity in turn is constituted only by the interaction between parts. Understandably, this view of society met with criticism from authors such as Othmar Spann, who resented this dissolution of the social organism and charged Simmel with psychologizing sociology. In fact, Simmel's explicit reference in his definition of society to Kant's treatment of nature may be misleading. But society was for him not merely a psychic phenomenon, a phenomenon of perception, because its constituents interactions and interdependencies are real enough. Only the conception of society as an entity is a matter of perception.

is a field of study that seeks to analytically separate forms of interaction or sociation from their contents and to bring these together under a consistent scientific viewpoint.

According to Simmel, THE TASK OF SOCIOLOGY is to analytically separate these forms of interaction or sociation from their contents and to bring these together under a consistent scientific viewpoint. Form/content analysis rests upon two principles: 1) the same form of sociation is observed in dissimilar contents and in relation to differing purposes... and 2) content is expressed through a variety of different forms of sociation as its medium' (NET).

is the study of social forms, forms which like geometrical shapes, may exist in an unlimited variety of physical materials. Sociology is the study only of these forms, not the content of societal interaction (which is the job of psychology or economy).

Simmel conceives sociology as the science of social forms (in a sense affording form analytic primary over content although in reality they are inseparable). He makes use of a helpful analogy of geometry as the study of forms (ie. shapes) which may exist in an unlimited variety of physical materials. Simmel believes that sociology should leave the examination of the content of societal interaction to other sciences (such as psychology or economy) in the way that geometry leaves content analysis to the physical sciences.

is the study of the form of social interaction, or the forms of sociation.

Simmel defines sociology as the study of the 'form of social interaction'.

Georg SimmelThinkers

Georg Simmel