GEORG SIMMEL: BIOGRAPHY AND THEORY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Georg Simmel was a German neo-Kantian sociologist and philosopher, whose fame is mainly due to works related to sociological methodology. He is known for the creation of theories that promoted the approach to the study of society, breaking with the scientific methods used until that time to study the natural world.

He is considered one of the leading structural theorists of German philosophy and the social sciences of the late 19th century, focusing on urban life and the shape of the metropolis.

Biography

Simmel was born on March 1, 1858 in the heart of Berlin (when it was part of the kingdom of Prussia, before the creation of the German state). He was a modern urban man, with no roots in traditional popular culture.

Throughout his life he lived at the intersection of many movements, intensely affected by intersecting intellectual currents and a multiplicity of moral orientations. He died of cancer on September 26, 1918 in Strasbourg.

Simmel was the youngest of seven siblings. His father, a prosperous Jewish businessman who had converted to Christianity, died when Simmel was still young.

After his death, a family friend who owned a music publishing house became the child's tutor. The relationship with his dominant mother was somewhat distant, it seems that he did not have a safe family environment, and that is why from a very young age he had a feeling of marginality and insecurity.

Simmel's intellectual history

After graduating from high school, Simmel studied history and philosophy at the University of Berlin with some of the leading academic figures of the day:

-The historians Mommsen, Treitschke, Sybel and Droysen.

-The philosophers Harms and Zeller.

-Art historian Hermann Grimm.

-The anthropologists Lazarus and Steinthal, founders of Volkerpsychologie.

-The psychologist Bastian.

At that time sociology was flourishing but did not exist as such.

By the time he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1881 with his thesis entitled 'The Nature of Matter According to Kant's Physical Monadology', Simmel was already familiar with the broad field of knowledge that extends from history to philosophy and from psychology to philosophy. social Sciences. This catholicity of tastes and interests marked all his later career.

Berlin university

Deeply linked to the intellectual context of Berlin, both inside and outside the university, Simmel did not follow the example of other German academics who often moved from one university to another during and after their studies. Instead, he decided to stay at the University of Berlin, where he became a professor in 1885.

The courses he taught ranged from logic and the history of philosophy to ethics, social psychology, and sociology. He gave classes on Kant, Schopenhauer, Darwin and Nietzsche, among many others.

Often during the same academic year, he would study new trends in both sociology and metaphysics. He was a very popular teacher and his classes soon became outstanding intellectual events for the students and also for the cultural elite of Berlin.

I work in newspapers and magazines

At the same time he taught for 15 years, Simmel worked as a public sociologist writing articles on his subjects of study in newspapers and magazines.

Thanks to these articles, he made a name for himself and began to be respected in Europe and the United States. However, this important work was eluded by members of the academy, who refused to acknowledge his work with formal academic citations.

Unfortunately, part of Simmel's problem at this time was the anti-Semitism he had to deal with for being Jewish. However, he was committed to further advancement in sociological thinking and founded the German Sociological Society with Ferdinand Tonnies and Max Weber.

Simmel did not stop writing throughout his career. His work has more than 200 articles that he wrote for various academic and public media, in addition to 15 well-known books.

Theory

Simmel studied social and cultural phenomena. He sought to isolate general or recurrent forms of social interaction in the more specific types of activity, such as politics, economics, and aesthetics.

He also paid special attention to the problem of authority and obedience and to the forms and content in the framework of a transitory relationship.

This allowed him to develop a theory of structuralism within the reasoning of sociology. His work has led to the publication of several works on how people are affected by living in urban environments, how money affects society, and the social boundaries that are formed by the desire to stay within a personal comfort zone.

What are the foundations of Georg Simmel's theory?

George Simmel's theory has three levels of concern as fundamental components. His theory pays attention to the microscopic events that take place in society and their impact on the macroscopic world.

This motivates the interactions that develop between different classes of people to become unique. Therefore, both subordination and superiority, conflict, exchange, and sociability are points of attention within each fundamental element.

Individualism

This theory focuses on how associations are formed without paying attention to the individuality of each human consciousness. Simmel believed that human beings were basically actors who could adapt to changing social structures that interacted with their world.

The ability to adapt would affect the way in which each individual maintained creative structures. This means that social and cultural structures have their own individuality.

Relations

Simmel rejected the idea that there were quick and strong divisions between different social relations and other social phenomena. He focused on interactive relationships and their influence on the creation of microscopic societies.

Everything interacts with everything else in a certain way, so that a society could become predictable based on the contradictions, conflicts, and dualisms that may be present.

Wish

Some people want to establish more social relationships than others. This process creates a society where free association creates a hierarchy based on skills that each individual must adapt to individualized relationships.

The interactions could be positive or negative, but each would try to develop the character and skill necessary to achieve a desired place in society.

Important publications

On social differentiation

In his first book on sociology, Simmel introduces us to themes that he talks about later in his works: individualism and cosmopolitanism, the individual as an intersection in social circles, the great masses…

Problems of the philosophy of history

This three-part critical work deals with the general conditions of historical research, the value of historical laws, and the meaning and limits of a philosophy of history.

Introduction to moral science

In this work Simmel defended a merely descriptive ethic.

Philosophy of money (1900)

Simmel applied his general principles to a particular subject; the economy, highlighting the role of money in social activity and the depersonalization of individual and social relationships.

Sociology: Studies on forms of socialization

This work divided into sections addresses different topics such as religious activities, social construction, contemporary society, mechanisms of subordination, resistance and conflict…

Bibliography

1. Adler, M. (1919). Georg Simmels Bedeutung für die Geistesgeschichte. Anzengruber-Verlag. Brace Jovanovich, H. Georg Simmel: Biography. Recovered from the socio.ch website.
2. Classical Sociological Theory - Chapter Summary. (2016). Recovered from the web highered.mheducation.com.
3. Crossman, A. (2018). Who Was Sociologist Georg Simmel ?. Recovered from the web thoughtco.com.
4. Mambrol, N. (2018). The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Recovered from the web literariness.org.