Suchergebnisse

Simmel's relativism aims to achieve the modern shift from substance to function without falling into pure sociological functionalism and generalized sceptical dissolution. This relativism would like to be at the same time a theory of objective forms of culture, a critique of modern forms of life and culture and a philosophical practice and attitude. That is why it is always both a philosophy of life and a philosophy of culture. Based on the pedagogy courses held by Simmel in Strasbourg in 1915/1916, this article outlines the consequences of this relativism in terms of pedagogy and philosophy of education. In particular, it considers ways to mitigate the "tragedy of culture", that is to promote the mobility and individuation of life without sacrificing the consistency of objective forms of culture.

I propose to read Simmel's developments on the law of the individual as an attempt to solve the problem of modern culture, that is the increasing discrepancy between life and objective mind. I understand the law of the individual as a regulative idea of culture (in the sense of Bildung), which is, at the same time, relational and individual: as an ideal of the most fruitful relation and synthesis between individual life and objective formations of culture.

Every sociology rests on representations that are not explicitly thematised, and are in concordance with an atmosphere and cultural formations. These representations correspond to what Panofsky called a mental habit. which is transferable from one field of activity or thought to another. The essay shows how both the themes of individuality and of Bildung play back on G. Simmel's conception and place of the "social" and, consequently, on his sociological view.