The Theory of Georg Simmel

Of particular interest in this connection is the work of the German sociologist Georg Simmel, who lived from 1858 to 1918. He was a private lecturer in Berlin until his departure for Strassburg in 1914, where he became a professor of philosophy. After 1925 interest was reawakened in Simmel’s work when a translation of his selected writings was made by Nicholas J. Spykman.

Simmel’s analysis of society is somewhat similar to that which we have made. He maintains that the concept of society has significance only when it stands in some sort of contrast to that of the sum of the individuals involved. A social group, according to his view, consists in the last analysis in the mental attituudes of the members. The unity of any given social group consists in the reciprocal relations between its members; this unity results not only from forces that tend to draw people together but from forces that tend to separate them as well. The term “society,” according to Simmel, may refer to these two types of forces or may refer to the sum of the reciprocal relations between individuals.

Starting with this analysis, Simmel draws a distinction between the form and the content of society. We may distinguish, for instance, between the form “competition” and the various kinds of content that may occur in this form. A tennis game is a competitive sport between two individuals or two pairs of individuals. A football game involves the competition between two organized teams. We speak of the conflict of a number of suitors for the hand of a girl as competition. The rivalry between two grocery stores or two newspapers, too, is said to be competitive.

According to Simmel, society as content is the subject matter of the social sciences. However, if we focus not on the content of society but on the form, and, for example, isolate the problem of the form “competition” from the various kinds oof content, we are then performing a sociological analysis. Sociology is then defined generally as the study of “the forms of socialization.” Simmel’s own statement of the case is interesting. He says: “Sociology abstracts the sociological form from the psychological actualities which are its beares in the same way as geometry abstracts the special form from the material substance.”

In contrast to sociology, according to Simmel, psychology deals with the operations of the individual mind. Social philosophy, he says, deals with those basic principles that underlie social knowledge. In general, the other social sciences are concerned with the problem of content, sociology with form.

We have given you simmel’s view for a number of reasons. (1) It was one of the first attempts to isolate sociology from the other social sciences. (2) It has had a very marked effect on the work of other sociologists. (3) Furthermore, Simmel had much influence on the German sociologist Leopold von Wiese, the author of one of the chief works in systematic sociology.

(Source: Martindale, Don, & Monachesi, E. D. 1969. Elements of Sociology. New York : Harper & Brothers. pg 35-36)

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