Georg Simmel

Until recently little of Simmel's work was available in translation and certain key texts were unknown outside Germany. David Frisby, the eminent Simmel scholar, provides not only an introduction to the major sociological writings of this important figure, but also an argument for a reconsideration of his work. The author outlines the cultural and historical context in which Simmel worked; reviews Simmel's most important writings; and examines his legacy to sociology by illuminating his links with Weber's theories and his influential relationship with Marxism. Simmel, a central figure in the development of modern sociology, and a contemporary of Weber and Durkheim, was one of the first to identify sociology as a separate discipline. His ideas influenced Weber, the Chicago School, and many later sociologists. His introduction of a number of basic concepts to sociology, such as exchange, interaction and differentiation, attest to his intellectual stature and the far-reaching significance of his work.

"This book is a first of its kind: an edited collection bringing the finest of Georg Simmel's writing on art and aesthetics together, and bringing many of these essays into English for the first time. Simmel is considered one of the founding fathers of modern sociology but he, like his contemporary Walter Benjamin, wrote about many aspects of life and culture. Simmel's intellectual contributions have long been recognized and he is a keystone in cultural theory of the early 20th century. The essays in this collection are gathered topically and show the wide range of Simmel's thinking even within the arts: aesthetics, landscape, theater, sculpture, literature, and more. Austin Harrington is the brilliant guide behind this substantial volume. He served as editor and translator and also wrote an introduction. Richly informative and thoroughly familiar with Simmel's life and work, Harrington's introduction will itself be an important contribution to the scholarship on Simmel"--

Contemporary sociology increasingly seems to be adopting a perspective similar to that on which Georg Simmel's analysis and interpretations rested. To a significant degree, therefore, sociologists continue to turn to Simmel for a basic understanding of the forms and processes of social life. Nicholas Spykman's The Social Theory of Georg Simmel, originally published in 1925, was the first comprehensive account of Simmel's ideas. It remains a most valuable summary of the major elements of his thought.Spykman wrote this study for a specific purpose: to indicate Simmel's conception of the relations between different fields of theoretic inquiry into socio-historical actuality; to make Simmel's contributions to the methodology of the social sciences understood; and to illustrate Simmel's conception of sociology as a science. He shows that Simmel was primarily a social philosopher interested in a functional understanding of socio-historical realities, art and economic values, morals and aesthetics, religion, and the function of money. Spykman identifies three major phases in the development of Simmel's thought: the first is primarily occupied with methodology and the presuppositions of the social sciences; during the second he wrote several essays containing philosophic interpretations of modern civilization; and the third culminated in his metaphysics of culture.The Social Theory of Georg Simmel, graced with a new introduction by David Frisby, one of the foremost contemporary Simmel experts, is an outstandingly organized, coherent presentation of the complex and subtle ideas of one of the intellectual giants of modern sociology.

An internationally famous philosopher and best-selling author during his lifetime, Georg Simmel has been marginalized in contemporary intellectual and cultural history. This neglect belies his pathbreaking role in revealing the theoretical significance of phenomena—including money, gender, urban life, and technology—that subsequently became established arenas of inquiry in cultural theory. It further ignores his philosophical impact on thinkers as diverse as Benjamin, Musil, and Heidegger. Integrating intellectual biography, philosophical interpretation, and a critical examination of the history of academic disciplines, this book restores Simmel to his rightful place as a major figure and challenges the frameworks through which his contributions to modern thought have been at once remembered and forgotten.

This collection brings together the essential secondary literature on Simmel. Selected and edited by David Frisby - a scholar who has perhaps done more than anyone to rehabilitate Simmel's reputation. Both a consise and comprehensive work.

This work by the late Nicholas Spykman offers the reader a comprehensive synopsis of both Simmel's social theory and the essentials of his formal sociology. Drawing on passages from numerous works by Simmel, the author sets out Simmel's conception of the relationship between the different fields of theoretic inquiry into socio-historical actuality; explains his major contribution to the methodology of the social sciences; and finally illustrates Simmel's conception of sociology as a science. The book also contains summaries of the as yet untranslated chapters of Simmel's work, Sociologie (1908).

This book draws upon the work of Georg Simmel to explore the limits, tensions and dynamism of social life through a close analysis of the works produced in the final years of his life and reveals what they might still offer some 100 years later. Focusing on the relationships between worlds, lives and fragments in these works, David Beer opens up a conceptual toolkit for understanding life as both an individual experience and as a deeply social phenomenon. Taking the reader through artistic and musical forms of inspiration, to the problems of culture and on to the conceptual understanding of lived experience, the book illuminates the richness of Simmel’s ideas and thinking. This sophisticated dialogue with Simmel’s lesser known later works will provide fresh insights for students and scholars of cultural and social theory and pave the way for a reinvigorated engagement with his ideas.