Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 March 1858 |
| Died | 26 September 1918 (aged 60) |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin (PhD) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Neo-Kantianism Lebensphilosophie |
| Institutions | University of Berlin University of Strasbourg |
| Notable students | György Lukács, Robert E. Park, Max Scheler |
| Main interests | Philosophy, sociology |
| Notable ideas | Formal sociology, social forms and contents, the tragedy of culture, web of group affiliation |
Georg Simmel (/ˈzɪməl/; German: [ˈzɪml̩]; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. A founding figure of sociology, his neo-Kantian approach helped establish sociological antipositivism, asking "What is society?" in analogy to Kant's "What is nature?". He pioneered analyses of individuality and social fragmentation.
Simmel discussed social and cultural phenomena in terms of "forms" and "contents" with a transient relationship, wherein form becomes content, and vice versa dependent on context. In this sense, Simmel was a forerunner to structuralist styles of reasoning in the social sciences.
Through "The Metropolis and Mental Life" Simmel was a precursor of urban sociology, symbolic interactionism, and social network analysis. An acquaintance of Max Weber, Simmel wrote on the topic of personal character in a manner reminiscent of the sociological ideal type. He broadly rejected academic standards, however, philosophically covering topics such as emotion and romantic love. Both Simmel and Weber's nonpositivist theory informed the eclectic critical theory of the Frankfurt School.