Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms (Heritage of Sociology Series)

Rating:
Summary: Simmel: a German intellectual
Review: A good collection of Simmel's important essays, especially the parts from Philosophy of Money are useful, but it also carries the weaknesses of its original author. Whether you call it impressionistic sociology or whatever, it lacks explanatory vigour, and in so far as philosophical insight is concerned it is not good enough for a devoted philosopher. We know that Simmel's interests span a wide range of domains, and if this is a strength it is also a major source of weakness in his case.

Rating:
Summary: Impressionist Sociology!
Review: Georg Simmel's social thought having being neglected for several decades, experiences a revival since the early nineties. A reason for this may be traced in his "gifted" - almost literary - style and in his breadth and vision regarding the state of modern urban culture. The collection of Simmel essays assembled in this volume by Donald Levine, covers a wide variety of the topics with which Simmel was preoccupied during his lifetime. One will find here Simmel's seminal work on social types, particularly on the "stranger" and the "poor". Simmel's brilliant essays on the "conflict in modern culture", the "tragedy of culture" and on the modern metropolis are included constituting essential reading for those who apart from a sociological perspective wish also to gain an aesthetic view of social reality. Simmel's intellectual roots are manifold. One can trace them back to Kant and Hegel but equally to the existentialist thinkers Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Many of the arguments raised by Simmel in these essays bear the marks of the aforementioned philosophers while others sound incredibly relevant for today's (post)modern culture (for example the essay on "fashion" and on the "conflict in modern culture". The reader of this volume is introduced to Simmel's thought through an excellent and scholarly essay by D.Levine which also locates Simmel's sociology in the American intellectual context (i.e Parsons and Park). This collection has become a classic among Simmel scholars and it provides essential reading for sociologists and philosophers alike.