The Social Thought of Georg Simmel Social Thinkers Series Series Editor A. Javier Treviño Wheaton College, Norton, MA Published The Social Thought of Georg Simmel The Social Thought of By Horst J. Helle The Social Thought of Émile Durkheim Georg Simmel By Alexander Riley The Social Thought of C. Wright Mills By A. Javier Treviño Forthcoming The Social Thought of Karl Marx By Justin P. Holt The Social Thought of Erving Goffman By Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Søren Kristiansen The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Horst J. Helle By Helmut Staubmann University of Munich, Germany Social Thinkers Series Series Editor A. Javier Treviño Wheaton College, Norton, MA Published The Social Thought of Georg Simmel The Social Thought of By Horst J. Helle The Social Thought of Émile Durkheim Georg Simmel By Alexander Riley The Social Thought of C. Wright Mills By A. Javier Treviño Forthcoming The Social Thought of Karl Marx By Justin P. Holt The Social Thought of Erving Goffman By Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Søren Kristiansen The Social Thought of Talcott Parsons Horst J. Helle By Helmut Staubmann University of Munich, Germany FOR INFORMATION: Copyright  2015 by SAGE Publications, Inc. SAGE Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be 2455 Teller Road reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, Thousand Oaks, California 91320 electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, E-mail: [email protected] recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the SAGE Publications Ltd. publisher. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom Printed in the United States of America. SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 Helle, Horst Jürgen. India The social thought of Georg Simmel / Horst J. Helle, University of Munich, Germany. SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd. 3 Church Street pages cm.—(Social thinkers series) #10-04 Samsung Hub Includes bibliographical references and index. Singapore 049483 ISBN 978-1-4129-9765-2 (alk. paper) 1. Simmel, Georg, 1858–1918. 2. Sociology—Philosophy. I. Title. HM479.S55H444 2015 301.01—dc23 2013037526 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Acquisitions Editor: Jeff Lasser Editorial Assistant: Lauren Johnson Production Editor: David C. Felts Copy Editor: Diana Breti Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. Proofreader: Annie Lubinsky Cover Designer: Gail Buschman Marketing Manager: Erica DeLuca 14 15 16 17 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Series Editor’s Foreword vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Why Study Simmel? 1 Chapter 1. Georg Simmel: The Man and His Work 7 Chapter 2. Sociology as One of the Humanities 23 Chapter 3. Individualization as Ethical Concern 33 Chapter 4. What Religions Have in Common 47 Chapter 5. Evolution: The Family and Private Life 59 Chapter 6. Equality Versus Liberty: Competition and Money 71 Chapter 7. Sociology Saves Lives: Vitalism and the Poor Person 81 Chapter 8. Further Readings: Living in Big Cities 93 Glossary 105 References 109 Index 113 About the Author 117 Series Editor’s Foreword T he SAGE Social Thinkers series is dedicated to making available com- pact, reader-friendly paperbacks that examine the thought of major figures from within and beyond sociology. The books in this series provide concise introductions to the work, life, and influences of the most prominent social thinkers. Written in an accessible and provocative prose, these books are designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of sociol- ogy, politics, economics, and social philosophy, as well as for scholars and socially curious general readers. The first few volumes in the series are devoted to the “classical” thinkers— Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, George Hebert Mead, Talcott Parsons, and C. Wright Mills—who, through their seminal writings, laid the foundation for much of current social thought. Subsequent books will feature more “contemporary” scholars as well as those not yet adequately represented in the canon: Jane Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Harold Garfinkel, Norbert Elias, Jean Baudrillard, and Pierre Bourdieu. Particular attention is paid to those aspects of the social thinker’s personal background and intellectual influences that most impacted his or her approach to better understanding individuals and society. Consistent with SAGE’s distinguished track record of publishing high- quality textbooks in sociology, the carefully assembled volumes in the Social Thinkers series are authored by respected scholars committed to dis- seminating the discipline’s rich heritage of social thought and to helping students comprehend key concepts. The information offered in these books will be invaluable for making sense of the complexities of contemporary social life and various issues that have become central concerns of the human condition: inequality, social order, social control, deviance, the social self, rationality, reflexivity, and so on. These books in the series can be used as self-contained volumes or in conjunction with textbooks in sociological theory. Each volume concludes with a Further Readings chapter intended to facilitate additional study and vii viii——The Social Thought of Georg Simmel research. As a collection, the Social Thinkers series will stand as a testament to the robustness of contemporary social thought. Our hope is that these books on the great social thinkers will give students a deeper understanding of modern and postmodern Western social thought and encourage them to engage in sociological dialogue. Premised on Newton’s aphorism, “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” (an aphorism, incidentally, that was introduced into sociology by Robert K. Merton, himself a towering figure in the disci- pline), the Social Thinkers series aims to place its readers on the shoulders of the giants of 19th- and 20th-century social thought. Acknowledgments T he following pages are dedicated to the women and men who want to understand how culture and society change. Among them are my for- mer students and my colleagues who challenged me over the years with their questions and with the role model they gave me. More recently, I was asked to lecture about Simmel in China. There, the role model decidedly included the students whose interest in and knowledge of the history, philosophy, and sociology of “The West” repeatedly made me feel ashamed about how little I know about the 5,000 years of Chinese culture and history: Chinese intel- lectuals know so much more about us Westerners than we know about them. Continuing this trend, they wanted to study Simmel. Simmel was way ahead of his time in realizing that the world is becoming more and more unified. Increasingly, what must have appeared visionary in his days has become a reality. The Simmel scholars who, in a wider sense, were my teachers were typically marginal men who did not depend on trans- lations to read Simmel. Kurt Wolff, Reinhard Bendix, Everett C. Hughes, and Herbert Blumer were among them. This book is published in their memory and as a grateful acknowledgment of their scholarship, wisdom, and kindness. ix