Born in Berlin on March 1, 1858 Germany. Received his PHD from the university of Berlin German Sociologist, Author, and philosopher. Best known as a micro sociologist Close acquaintance of Max Weber (1864-1920). Despite being a popular lecturer and being supported by Weber, he was consider an outsider academically. Only in 1914 did Simmel obtain a regular academic appointment, and this appointment was in Strasbourg, far from Berlin Died on September 28, 1918.

1. Georg Simmel (1858-1918)
Presented By:
Faiza Parveen
M.phil 1st, Sociology

2. INTRODUCTION
•Born in Berlin on March 1, 1858 Germany.
•Received his PHD from the university of Berlin
•German Sociologist, Author, and philosopher. Best known as a micro sociologist
•Close acquaintance of Max Weber (1864-1920).
•Despite being a popular lecturer and being supported by Weber, he was consider an outsider
academically.
•Only in 1914 did Simmel obtain a regular academic appointment, and this appointment was
in Strasbourg, far from Berlin
• Died on September 28, 1918.

3. Simmel work’s
 His view of society
 His view of sociology
 His assertion that individual in modern society was in trouble.-
 metaphysical principles of life
• Contribute greatly to the development of small group research (poverty,
the prostitute, the miser and the spendthrift, and the stranger. )
• Focused intently on social interaction and social geometry, Philosophy
of Money , The Metropolis and Mental Life [1903/1971])

4. Definition of society
 For Simmel, society is nothing but lived experience, and
social forces are not external to, nor necessarily
constraining for the individual, rather it is individuals who
reproduce society every living moment through their
actions and interactions

5.  A dialectical approaches multi causal and multidirectional, integrates fact and value,
rejects the idea that there are hard-and-fast dividing lines between social
phenomena, focuses on social relations (B. Turner, 1986), looks not only at the
present but also at the past and the future, and is deeply concerned with both
conflicts and contradictions.
 Simmel’s sociology was always concerned with relationships especially interaction
association.
 “In Simmel’s dialectic, man is always in danger of being slain by those objects of
his own creation which have lost their organic human coefficient

6. Objective Vs Subjective Culture
 refers to those things
that people produce
(art, science,
philosophy, and so
on).
 refers to the capacity
of the actor to
produce, absorb, and
control the elements
of objective culture.
Objective culture Subjective culture

7. Urbanism VS Urbanization
Urbanism (life within the city)
• A phenomenon of people human
interaction in moving from rural areas
metropolitan areas. towards urban
cities.
• It studies the significance of cities in
role of migration and the reasons
development of society. acting behind
it.
 Urbanization (development of
city)
 refers to the city formation or
building process. It studies the way
social activities locate themselves
in space according to
interdependence process of societal
development and change

8. The Metropolis and Mental Life(1903)
 Simmel notes:
 The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to
preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of
overwhelming social forces, of external culture, and of the technique of life.
 The urban dwellers mental life is predominantly intellectualistic in character.
 People respond to situations in a rational rather than an emotional manner.
 A common stance of urban dweller is thus the blasé outlook.
 The world of the blasé person is flat grey and homogenous.
 Analysis of contrast between urban and rural ways of life
 .Differences between the traditional villages ,small town and modern city.

9. Cont.
 Simmel look at the social psychological features of modern urban culture.
 He notes that in cities, many anonymous people come into contact with one another,
yet are removed from the emotional ties and social bounds they had in smaller
communities.

10. Blasé attitude
 Simmel describe blase attitude as an attitude of absolute boredom and lack
of concern.
 A money economy also induces a blasé attitude, “all things as being of an
equally dull and grey hue, as not worth getting excited about” .
 Results of the reduction of the concrete values of life to the mediating
values of money

11. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
 We tend to focus on money in terms of its functions:
 in exchange (medium of exchange),
 as an asset (store of value), and
 being useful for accounting purposes (unit of account).

12. Simmel Focus
 Simmel focuses on money and the monetary system as an integral
part of the market economy.
 Money is a social institution.
 Money is related to justice, liberty, and man as a social creature.
 The monetary system is not the conscious creation of a political entity, but
rather is the unintended product of social evolution.

13.  Simmel treated money as a specific phenomenon linked with a variety of other
components of life, including “exchange, ownership, greed, cynicism, individual
freedom, the style of life, culture, the value of the personality, etc.”
 Much in common with the work of Karl Marx. Like Marx, Simmel focused on
capitalism and the problems created by a money economy.
 But having a difference because Marx saw economic problems as time-bound, the
product of capitalist society, he believed that eventually they could be solved.
While Simmel saw the basic problems as inherent in human life and held out no
hope for future improvement.

14. Money and Value
 According to Simmel, people create value by making objects, separating
themselves from those objects, and then seeking to overcome the “distance,
obstacles, difficulties”.
 Money provides the means by which these entities acquire a life of their own that
is external to, and coercive of, the actor.
 Promotes rational calculation in human affairs, furthering rationalization
characteristics of modern societies.

15. Money and Freedom
15
 Money is also linked directly to justice and freedom.
 “Exchange is … a really wonderful means for combining
justice with changes in ownership.”
 Money is a social institution and is meaningless if
restricted to the individual.
 Money expands liberty.
 Simmel does not argue that economic freedom is
sufficient to guarantee political freedom. Like Friedman,
he argues that it is a necessary, but not sufficient
condition.

16. Criticisms
• Simmel does not suggest a way out of the tragedy of culture, because he
considers alienation to be inherent to the human condition. (by Marxists)
• Theoretical framework was not used.

17. References
• Ritzer, George, Sociological Theory (McGraw-
Hill, New York, 1992), t
• http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate
/introsoc/simmel6.htmlhird edition.
• http://www.sociologyguide.com/sociology-of-
georg-simmel.php