Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel (/ˈzɪməl/; German: [ˈzɪməl]; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.
Georg Simmel | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 March 1858 |
| Died | 26 September 1918 (aged 60) Strassburg, German Empire |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin (PhD) |
| 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 |
Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, asking "what is society?"—directly alluding to Kant's "what is nature?"—presenting pioneering analyses of social individuality and 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. With his work on the metropolis, Simmel would also be 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 would inform the eclectic critical theory of the Frankfurt School.