Society as the mode of redemption: the individual in Georg Simmel's early sociological writings

• Published in: Intellectual history review Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 413 - 431
• Main Author: Podoksik, Efraim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.10.2015
• ISSN: 1749-6977; 1749-6985
• DOI: 10.1080/17496977.2015.1039784

The explicit vocabulary of redemption appears mainly in Georg Simmel's later writing. Yet, the question itself can be traced back over the course of his entire intellectual life to his earliest publications, such as the treatise "On Social Differentiation" (1890). This aspect of Simmel's early writings is frequently neglected in the scholarly literature, which focuses largely on his contribution to the development of the social sciences, building on the scientific project initiated by psychologists and anthropologists of an earlier generation, such as Lazarus and Bastian, who are similarly interpreted mainly as practitioners of an incipient science. The purpose of this article is to modify this perception. In the eyes of the young Simmel, the science of society was not merely a scientific enterprise. Like his predecessors, he felt that the social question was becoming the most important cultural and philosophical issue of the day, and that if the right answers to that question could be found, the individual and his spiritual life might also be redeemed. It is this quest, I believe, that distinguishes Simmel's earlier writings on society from the sociology of his later years.