SOCIOL 3488 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Georg Simmel, Pure Sociology, Antithesis
9 Sep 2016
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Overview: philosopher in training, studied micro-level forms and interactions, difficult academic life = berlin anti-semitism, but supported by max weber. Influential for early usa sociology; eclipsed by marx, durkheim and weber. C: legacy: symbolic interactionism, exchange theory, small group research. Basic approach: methodological relationist: everything interacts with everything else, social reality has multiple levels, emergence: lower levels give rise to higher levels (supra-individual formations, levels of sociological study. Topics: little about first, a lot about second. Types: positions in the social structure of interactions (competitor, coquette) & orientations to social world (miser, spendthrift, stranger, adventurer. Topic: structures of and changes in sociocultural products. Topic: fundamental nature and inevitable fate of humanity: three levels of sociological study. Simmel"s dialectic occurs at all three levels: levels of dialectic. Forms of social interaction that simultaneously enables conformity to group and deviation from norm. History repeats: rise of fashion always leads to its demise. Leader of a fashion movement is actually its best follower.
