In this article I consider the normative and axiological dimension of Simmel’s thought. Building on previous interpretations, I argue that although Simmel cannot be interpreted as a systematic normative theorist, the issue of values and the normative standpoint can nevertheless be traced in various aspects of his multifarious work. This interpretive turn attempts to link Simmel’s obscure theory of value with his epistemological relationism. Relationism may offer a counterweight to Simmel’s value-pluralism, since it points to normative elements (e.g. internal teleology, justice) that can contribute to the reconciliation between incommensurablity of forms and totality. Axiological and normative concerns (of a Hegelian source) survive also in his metaphysics of life, pointing beyond a merely Bergsonian and conservative Lebensphilosophie. I conclude with some thoughts on how this normative rethinking of Simmel’s thought can contribute towards more adequate appreciations of Simmel’s overall theory.
Adorno, T. (1993) Hegel: Three Studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
2.
Backhaus, H.-G. (1992) ‘Between Philosophy and Science: Marxian Social Economy as Critical Theory’, in W. Bonefeld , R. Gunn and K. Psychopedis (eds) Open Marxism, Volume 1, Dialectics and History. London: Pluto Press , pp. 54–92.
3.
Bouglé, C. (1926) The Evolution of Values: Studies in Sociology with Special Application to Teaching. New York: Henry Holt .
4.
Cassirer, E. (2000) The Logic of the Cultural Sciences: Five Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
5.
Coser, L. (1956) The Functions of Social Conflict. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
6.
Coser, L. (ed.) (1965) Georg Simmel. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
7.
Deflem, M. (2003) ‘The Sociology of the Sociology of Money: Simmel and the Contemporary Battle of the Classics’ , Journal of Classical Sociology3(1): 67–96 .
8.
Delbos, V. (1914) Préface [Preface] in A. Mamelet , Le Relativisme Philosophique chez Georg Simmel [The Philosophical Relativism in Georg Simmel]. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan , pp. i–vi.
9.
Durkheim, E. (1953) Sociology and Philosophy. Glencoe, IL: Free Press .
10.
Frisby, D. (1985) Fragments of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press .
11.
Frisby, D. (1991) Sociological Impressionism: A Reassessment of Georg Simmel’s Social Theory. London: Routledge .
12.
Frisby, D. (1992) Simmel and Since: Essays on Georg Simmel’s Social Theory. London: Routledge .
13.
Habermas, J. (1996) ‘Simmel on Philosophy and Culture: Postscript to a Collection of Essays’ , Critical Inquiry22: 403–414 .
14.
Hahn, A. (1992) ‘Mort et Civilisation chez G. Simmel’ [Death and Civilisation in G. Simmel], in O. Rammstedt and P. Watier (eds) G. Simmel et les Sciences Humaines [G. Simmel and the Human Sciences]. Paris: Méridiens Klincksieck , pp. 211–219.
15.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1975) Hegel’s Logic. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
16.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1986) The Jena System, 1804–5: Logic and Metaphysics. Kingston/Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press .
17.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1999) Hegel’s Science of Logic. New York: Humanity Books .
18.
Heidegger, M. (1967) Being and Time. Oxford: Basil Blackwell .
19.
Herf, J. (1984) Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
20.
Jankélévitch, V. (1988) ‘Introduction: Georg Simmel, philosophe de la vie’ [Introduction: Georg Simmel, Philosopher of Life], in G. Simmel , La Tragédie de la culture et autres essais [The Tragedy of Culture and Other Essays]. Paris: Editions Rivages .
21.
Joas, H. (1996) The Creativity of Action. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
22.
Joas, H. (2000) The Genesis of Values. Cambridge: Polity Press .
23.
Kaern, M. , Phillips, Bernard S. and Cohen, Robert S. , eds (1991) Georg Simmel and Contemporary Sociology. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers .
24.
Kamolnick, P. (2001) ‘Simmel’s Legacy for Contemporary Value Theory: a Critical Assessment’ , Sociological Theory19(1): 65–85 .
25.
Kant, I. (1996) The Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
26.
King, M. and Thornhill, C. (2003) Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Politics and Law. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan .
27.
Kracauer, S. (1995) The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
28.
Lawrence, P. (1976) ‘Introduction to the Life and Work of Georg Simmel’, in P. Lawrence (ed.) Georg Simmel: Sociologist and European. Sunbury-on-Thames, Mx: Nelson .
29.
Leck, R. (2000) Georg Simmel and Avant-Garde Sociology: The Birth of Modernity, 1880–1920. New York: Humanity Press .
30.
Léger, F. (1989) La Pensée de Georg Simmel [The Thought of Georg Simmel]. Paris: Éditions Kimé .
31.
Levine, D. (2000) ‘On the Critique of “Utilitarian” Theories of Action: Newly Identified Convergencies among Simmel, Weber and Parsons’ , Theory, Culture and Society17(1): 63–78 .
32.
Loiskandl, H. , Weinstein, D. and Weinstein, M. (1986) ‘Introduction’, in G. Simmel , Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press , pp. xi–lii.
33.
Lukács, G. (1980) The Destruction of Reason. London: Merlin Press .
34.
Lukács, G. (1991) ‘Georg Simmel’ , Theory, Culture and Society: a Special Issue on Georg Simmel8: 145–150 .
35.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1986) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press .
36.
Maffesoli, M. (1992) ‘G. Simmel: Modernité et Post-Modernité’ [G. Simmel: Modernity and Postmodernity], in O. Rammstedt and P. Watier (eds) G. Simmel et les Sciences Humaines [G. Simmel and the Human Sciences]. Paris: Méridiens Klincksieck , pp. 151–160.
37.
Mamelet, A. (1914) Le Relativisme Philosophique chez Georg Simmel [Philosophical Relativism in Georg Simmel]. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan .
38.
Mamelet, A. (1965) ‘Sociological Relativism’, in L. Coser (ed.) Georg Simmel. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall , pp. 64–73.
39.
Mannheim, K. (1936) Ideology and Utopia. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich .
40.
Marcuse, H. (1968) Negations: Essays in Critical Theory. Boston, MA: Beacon Press .
41.
Marcuse, H. (1987) Hegel’s Ontology and the Theory of Historicity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
42.
Meštrović, S. (1991) The Coming Fin de Siècle: An Application of Durkheim’s Sociology to Modernity and Postmodernism. London: Routledge .
43.
Nietzsche, F. (1994) Human, All Too Human. London: Penguin Books .
44.
Oakes, G. (1977) ‘Introduction: Simmel’s Problematic’, in Georg Simmel , The Problems of the Philosophy of History. New York: Free Press , pp. 1–37.
45.
Oakes, G. (1985) ‘Theoretical Rationality and the Problem of Radical Value Conflicts: Remarks on Simmel, Rickert, and Weber’ , State, Culture and Society1(2): 175–199 .
46.
Ollman, B. (1971) Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
47.
Parsons, T. (1998) ‘The “Fragment” on Simmel’ [from draft chapter XVIII, ‘Structure of Social Action’ , in Georg Simmel and Ferdinand Toennies: Social Relationships and the Elements of Action’], American Sociologist (Summer): 21–30 .
48.
Poggi, G. (1993) Money and the Modern Mind: Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money. Berkeley: University of California Press .
49.
Psychopedis, K. (1992) ‘Dialectical Theory: Problems of Reconstruction’, in Werner Bonefeld , Richard Gunn and Kosmas Psychopedis (eds) Open Marxism, Volume 1, Dialectics and History. London: Pluto Press , pp. 1–53.
50.
Reichelt, H. (1996) ‘Marxiki Theoria Systasis tis Axias’ [Marxian Theory of the Constitution of Value], Axiologika9-9 ( Athens: Exandas ).
51.
Rose, G. (1981) Hegel contra Sociology. London and Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone .
52.
Sassatelli, R. (2000) ‘From Value to Consumption: a Social-Theoretical Perspective on Simmel’s Philosophie des Geldes’ , Acta Sociologica43(3): 207–218 .
53.
Schnädelbach, H. (1984) Philosophy in Germany 1831–1933. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
54.
Simmel, G. (1900) ‘A Chapter in the Philosophy of Value’ , American Journal of Sociology5: 577–603 .
55.
Simmel, G. (1910) Hauptprobleme der Philosophie [Main Problems of Philosophy]. Leipzig: Goschen .
56.
Simmel, G. (1912) Mélanges de Philosophie Relativiste: Contribution à la Culture Philosophique [Mixtures of a Relativist Philosophy: Contribution to the Philosophical Culture]. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan .
57.
Simmel, G. (1916) Rembrandt: Ein kunstphilosophischer Versuch [Rembrandt: an Experiment in the Philosophy of Art]. Leipzig: Wolff .
58.
Simmel, G. (1922) ‘Henri Bergson’, in Grd. Simmel (ed.) Zur Philosophie der Kunst: Philosophische und Kunstphilosophische Aufsätze [On the Philosophy of Art: Brief Essays on Philosophy and Philosophy of Art]. Potsdam: Kiepenheuer .
59.
Simmel, G. (1950) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press .
60.
Simmel, G. (1971) On Individuality and Social Forms. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
61.
Simmel, G. (1977) The Problems of the Philosophy of History: an Epistemological Essay. New York: Free Press .
62.
Simmel, G. (1986) Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press .
63.
Simmel, G. (1988) La Tragédie de la Culture et autres essais [The Tragedy of Culture and Other Essays]. Paris: Editions Rivages .
64.
Simmel, G. (1989) Philosophie des Geldes, Gesamtausgabe [Collected Edn], ed. O. Rammstedt , Vol. 6. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp .
65.
Simmel, G. (1990) The Philosophy of Money. London: Routledge .
66.
Simmel, G. (1992) Aufsätze und Abhandlungen 1894–1900, Gesamtausgabe [Collected Edn], ed. O. Rammstedt, Vol. 5. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
67.
Simmel, G. (1997a) Simmel on Culture. London: Sage Publications .
68.
Simmel, G. (1997b) Essays on Religion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
69.
Simmel, G. (1999) Der Krieg und die geistigen Entscheidungen: Grundfragen der Soziologie: Vom Wesen des historischen Verstehens: Der Konflikt der modernen Kultur. Lebensanschauung, Gesamtausgabe [Collected Edn], ed. O. Rammstedt, Vol. 16. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
70.
Spencer, H. (1887) First Principles. London: Williams & Norgate .
71.
Spengler, O. (1966) Spengler Letters 1913–1936. London: Allen & Unwin .
72.
Spykman, N. (1992[1925]) The Social Theory of Georg Simmel. Aldershot, Hants: Gregg Revivals .
73.
Vaihinger, H. (1924) The Philosophy of As-If. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
74.
Vandenberghe, F. (2001) La Sociologie de Georg Simmel [The Sociology of Georg Simmel]. Paris: Éditions La Découverte .
75.
Vattimo, G. (1988) The End of Modernity: Nihilism and Hermeneutics in Post-modern Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press .
76.
Watier, P. (1992) ‘G. Simmel, L’Individualité, La Communauté et La Guerre’ [G. Simmel, Individualism, Community and the War], in O. Rammstedt and P. Watier (eds), G. Simmel et les sciences humaines [G. Simmel and the Human Sciences]. Paris: Méridiens Klincksieck , pp. 221–239.
77.
Weber, M. (1949) The Methodology of the Social Sciences. New York: Free Press .
78.
Weber, M. (1969) Basic Concepts in Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press .
79.
Weingartner, R. (1960) Experience and Culture: The Philosophy of Georg Simmel. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press .
80.
Weinstein, D. and Weinstein, Michael (1993) Postmodern(ized) Simmel. London: Routledge .
81.
Wolff, K. , ed. (1959) Georg Simmel 1858–1918. Columbus: Ohio State University Press .
