Georg simmel contribution sociology. Contribution of georg simmel to sociology Free Essays 2022-10-05
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Georg Simmel was a German sociologist and philosopher who made significant contributions to the field of sociology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Simmel is known for his work on the individual in society, as well as his analysis of social relationships and social forms.
One of Simmel's key contributions to sociology was his concept of the "dyad," which refers to a social relationship between two individuals. Simmel argued that dyadic relationships are characterized by a high level of intimacy and emotional intensity, and are therefore different from other types of social relationships. This concept has been influential in the study of social psychology and interpersonal relationships.
Simmel also made important contributions to the study of social groups and organizations. He argued that social groups are characterized by their shared values, norms, and goals, and that they can exert a powerful influence on individual behavior. Simmel's work on social groups has been influential in the study of social psychology, as well as in the fields of organizational behavior and management.
Another key contribution of Simmel's was his analysis of social forms, or the patterns of behavior and interactions that characterize different societies. Simmel argued that societies are characterized by different forms of social interaction, such as cooperation, competition, and conflict, and that these forms are shaped by the cultural, economic, and political contexts in which they occur. This analysis has been influential in the study of social structure and cultural sociology.
In addition to his contributions to sociology, Simmel was also a key figure in the development of the discipline of philosophy. His work on the individual in society, as well as his analysis of social forms, had a major impact on the development of existentialism and other philosophical movements.
Overall, Georg Simmel made significant contributions to the field of sociology, and his work continues to be influential in the study of social relationships, social groups, and social forms.
Contribution of georg simmel to sociology Free Essays
This content downloaded from 119. It produces the distances and the buffers without which this kind of life could not be led at all. This not merely as heroic treatment, in confidence that the antagonism beyond a certain degree will be modified either by exhaustion or by insight into its foolishness; but in monarchies sometimes a prince is given to the opposition as a leader. But in so doing it merely gives back what it had originally received. New York: Free Press. This stranger is someone who has a particular place in society within the social group that the person has entered.
The original published version of this document is in the public domain. The reciprocal attitude of men is often intelligible only on the basis of the perception that intimate adaptation teaches us those feelings which are appropriate to the given situation; feelings which are the most appropriate to the employment or the overcoming of the circum- 507 -stances of the situation ; feelings which bring us, through psychical association, the energies necessary for discharging the momentary task and for defeating the opposing impulses. As it is fearful to be at enmity with a person to whom one is nevertheless bound, from whom one cannot be freed, whether externally or subjectively, even if one will, so there is increased bitterness if one will not detach himself from the community because he is not willing to give up the value of membership in the containing unity, or because he feels this unity as an objective good, the threatening of which deserves conflict and hatred. What we have in mind by no means celebrates its most characteristic triumphs upon the political field, in the ranks of the opposition, whose classical type Macaulay describes in the case of Robert Ferguson: " His hostility was not to popery or to Protestantism, to monarchical government or to republican government, to the house of Stuart or to the house of Nassau, but to whatever was, at the time, established. He who desired to rid himself of his wealth for the benefit of others did not have to bother about the ways and means, because there existed for this very purpose a universal central organ between the giver and the needy.
Many of the norms and practices of public life are supported both by the free play of competing forces and by the control of the lower elements by higher ones. The faith in human relations which exists as a social necessity now becomes an independent, typical function of humanity which spontaneously authenticates itself from within; just as it is no rare phenomenon for a certain object to produce a certain psychical process in us, and afterward for this process, having become independent, to create a corresponding object for itself. Inasmuch as divergence and harmony intertwined inextricably with each other at this point, the content of the former developed itself actually as the germ of later community. While the triad is three or more entities that are bound to each other. In this way the position of the stranger is fixed in a society and defined. Conflict itself is the resolution of the tension between the contraries.
The community of interests with the king, the administration of which they incidentally served, and the action as a sort of opposition guarding the peculiar rights of their rank, took place in this social structure, not merely in an undifferentiated way side by side, but involved with each other. The type in this instance is furnished by the hatred of apostates and against the heretical. In this case the pure sociological attraction of self-assertion and predominance over another in a struggle of skill is combined with purely individual pleasure in the exercise of purposeful and successful activity, together with the excitement of taking risks with the hazard of fortune which stimulates us with a sense of mystic harmony of relationship to powers beyond the individual as well as the social occurrences. Face to face interaction is replaced by formal arrangements consisting of offices, written rules and well defined tasks and responsibilities. The products of human action and thus culture in all is most diverse manifestations, from agriculture, through economic activity, to high and popular art take on a momentum or logic of their own.
Such a struggle for struggle's sake seems to have its natural basis in a certain formal impulse of hostility, which forces itself sometimes upon psychological observation, and in various forms. We here touch upon the most serious misconception to which the attempt to trace ideal values historically and psychologically is exposed. Since everywhere mere possession counts as right to the possession, so 524 even the approach, desire, grows into the character of such a right, and the equivocal sense of the term " claim," namely, as simple desire and as rightfully founded desire, points to the fact that will is strongly inclined to attribute to the right of its might the might of a right. It has often been remarked that it is an incomprehensible thing that individuals, and entire classes, allow themselves to be oppressed and exploited, even though they possess ample power to secure immunity. The development of the forms and contents of social life, throughout its wide territory and multiplied phenomena, is This content downloaded from 119. Now, there is probably noi other single domain in which this non-competitive form of existence, this identity of aimi and interest, is so clearly and completely repre- sented as in religion. In the first stage of passion, erotic relations appear to those involved to be unique and thus uniquely subjective, for what is more subjective than erotic passion? Although universities and faculties have the authority to apply for full professorship titles, the decision rests with the state through the Prussian ministry.
Georg Simmel: A Contribution to the Sociology of Religion
Roman Catholicism has no occasion to fear that its peculiarity is threatened by an external contact with a church so completely differentiated as the Reformed body. Nor is this the only reservation that must be made in an attempt to determine the religious significance of the phenomena of social fife which preceded all religion in the order of time. With the modification to be introduced presently, nothing can be shown to disprove the assertion that the like is the case with hate: that the soul possesses also an autochthonous need of hating and of fighting, which often on its side projects their offensive qualities upon the objects which it selects. For, just as genuine and deepest love for a human being is not disturbed by subsequent evidence concerning its causes—yes, as its triumphant strength is revealed by its survival of the passing of those causes—so the strength of the subjective religious emotion is revealed only by the assurance which it has in itself, and with which it grounds its depth and intensity entirely beyond all the causes to which investigation may trace it. It must also be borne in mind that religion, as a spiritual experience, is not a finished product, but a vital process which each soul must beget for itself, no matter how stable the traditional content may be; and it is precisely here that the power and depth of religion are found, namely, in its persistent ability to draw a given content of religion into the flow of the emotions, whose movements must constantly renew it, like the perpetually changing drops o,f water which beget the stable picture of the rainbow. In order, now, to find the points at which, in the shifting conditions of human life, the momenta of religion originated, it will be necessary to digress to what may seem to be entirely foreign phenomena. Society is made up of a large number of individuals, all pursuing their own interests and concerns, with minimal attention to the interests of others beyond, perhaps, close friends and regular acquaintances.
Georg Simmel Contribution to the Sociology of Religion
The relation of a devoted child to its parent, of an enthusiastic patriot to his country, of the fervent cosmopolite toward humanity; the relation of the laboring-man to his struggling fellows, or of the proud feudal lord to his class; the relation of the subject to the ruler under whose control he is, and 362 of the true soldier to his army—all these relations, with their infinite variety of content, looked at from the psychological side, may have a common tone which can be described only as religious. The relationship between the leader and the follower forms a certain pattern of interaction. As a stranger a person is simultaneously both near to one as well as distant. Elwang will be glad enough to see it appear without compensation. The impulse to hate has in itself only in exceptional cases such acute stages, through which its subjective-spontaneous character would be equally evident. It is once for all the nature of the human mind not to be bound to other minds by a single thread.
Simmel's Stranger: In Theory and in Practice. Indeed, that a difference of convictions should at all run into hatred and struggle, occurs as a rule only in case of essential and original equality of the parties. The claim which belongs with jealousy is as such often enough recognized from the other side. To this result the tension between antagonism and still persisting unity must directly work. The form found in social reality is never pure — every social phenomenon contains a multiplicity of formal elements. When I say, "I believe in God," the assertion means something entirely different from the statement, " I believe in the existence of ether waves; " or, " The moon is inhabited; " or, " Human nature is always the same. Morality, the imperatives that control human conduct, has, 'so to speak, become immutable in him.
We conclude with a number of ways to develop Simmel's concepts in the field. The entire history of social life is permeated by this process: the positively antagonistic motives of individuals, with which their social life begins, grow up into separate and independent organisms. MĂĽnchen: Drei Masken Verlag. Since the latter displays its nullifying or destructive sense between the individual elements, the conclusion is hastily drawn that it must work in the same manner upon the total relationship. So long as family unity was the controlling form, Baal signified only a father, whose children were the people.
University of Illinois Press. The social role of this faith has never been investigated; but this much is certain, that without it society would disintegrate. It seems to me that among these forms which huLman relations assume, and which may have the most diverse contents, there is one which cannot be otherwise described than as religious, even though this designation of it, to be sure, antici- pates the name of the complete structure for its mere beginning and conditioning. This is demonstrated by the energy with which every heresy, no matter how irrelevant, is still combated. Career Highlights and Obstacles Over the course of the next 15 years, Simmel lectured and worked as a public sociologist, authoring numerous articles on his topics of study for newspapers and magazines. And it must also be borne in mind that the gods do not exist as the idealization of individual characteristics, of the power, or moral or immoral characteristics, or the inclinations and needs of individuals; but that it is the inter-individual forms of life which often give their content to religious ideas. Members of The Frankfurt School were also theoretically supported by Simmel's method of studying mass culture.
