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Georg Simmel (; 1 March 1858 – 28 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, asking 'What is society?' in a direct allusion to Kant's question 'What is nature?',〔Levine, Donald (ed) (1971)''Simmel: On individuality and social forms''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 6, ISBN 0226757765.〕 presenting pioneering analyses of social individuality and fragmentation. For Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history".〔 Simmel discussed social and cultural phenomena in terms of "forms" and "contents" with a transient relationship; form becoming content, and vice versa, dependent on the context. In this sense he was a forerunner to structuralist styles of reasoning in the social sciences. With his work on the metropolis, Simmel was a precursor of urban sociology, symbolic interactionism and social network analysis.〔Wellman, Barry. (1988). "Structural Analysis: From Method and Metaphor to Theory and Substance." pp. 19–61 in ''Social Structures: A Network Approach'', Barry Wellman and S. D. Berkowitz (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521286875.〕〔Freeman, Linton (2004) ''The Development of Social Network Analysis.'' Vancouver: Empirical Press, ISBN 1594577145.〕 An acquaintance of Max Weber, Simmel wrote on the topic of personal character in a manner reminiscent of the sociological 'ideal type'. He broadly rejected academic standards, however, philosophically covering topics such as emotion and romantic love. Both Simmel and Weber's nonpositivist theory would inform the eclectic critical theory of the Frankfurt School.〔Outhwaite, William. 1988. ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'' 2nd Edition (2009), p.5 (ISBN 9780745643281)〕 Simmel's most famous works today are ''The Problems of the Philosophy of History'' (1892), ''The Philosophy of Money'' (1907), ''The Metropolis and Mental Life'' (1903), ''Soziologie'' (1908, inc. ''The Stranger'', ''The Social Boundary'', ''The Sociology of the Senses'', ''The Sociology of Space'', and ''On The Spatial Projections of Social Forms''), and ''Fundamental Questions of Sociology'' (1917). He also wrote extensively on the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, as well on art, most notably his book ''Rembrandt: An Essay in the Philosophy of Art'' (1916). ==Biography== Simmel was born in Berlin, Germany, as the youngest of seven children. His father founded a successful chocolate factory and died in 1874, leaving a sizable inheritance.〔Helle, Horst J. (2009). "Introduction to the translation." Sociology: inquiries into the construction of social forms, Volume 1. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. p. 12〕 Julius Friedländer, the founder of an international music publishing house then adopted Georg and endowed him with a large fortune enabling him to become a scholar.〔(Georg Simmel: Biographic Information ). ex: Coser, Lewis A. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context. Second edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977.〕 His religious background was complicated but germane to his marginal status in German academia. He was born to a prosperous Jewish business family, but his father became a Roman Catholic. His mother's family was originally Jewish, but she was a Lutheran. Georg Simmel, himself, was baptized as a Protestant when he was a child.〔Simmel, Georg and Wolff, Kurt H. (1950) (The Sociology of Georg Simmel ). Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.〕 In 1890 he married Gertrud Kinel. A philosopher in her own right, she published under the name Gertrud Simmel and under the pseudonym Marie-Luise Enckendorf. They lived a sheltered and bourgeois life, their home becoming a venue for cultivated gatherings in the tradition of the salon. They had one son, Hans Eugen. Simmel studied philosophy and history at the University of Berlin. In 1881 he received his doctorate for his thesis on Kant's philosophy of matter, a part of which was subsequently published as "The Nature of Matter According to Kant's Physical Monadology". He became a ''Privatdozent'' at the University of Berlin in 1885, officially lecturing in philosophy but also in ethics, logic, pessimism, art, psychology and sociology. His lectures were not only popular inside the university, but attracted the intellectual elite of Berlin as well. Although his applications for vacant chairs at German universities were supported by Max Weber, Simmel remained an academic outsider. Only in 1901 was he elevated to the rank of extraordinary professor (full professor but without a chair; see the German section at Professor). At that time he was well known throughout Europe and America and was seen as a man of great eminence. He was well known for his many articles that appeared in magazines and newspapers. Simmel had a hard time gaining acceptance in the academic community despite the support of well known associates, such as Max Weber, Rainer Maria Rilke, Stefan George and Edmund Husserl. Partly he was seen as a Jew during an era of anti-Semitism, but also simply because his articles were written for a general audience rather than academic sociologists. This led to dismissive judgements from other professionals. Simmel nevertheless continued his intellectual and academic work, taking part in artistic circles as well as being a cofounder of the German Society for Sociology, together with Ferdinand Tönnies and Max Weber. This life at the meeting point of university and society, arts and philosophy was possible because he had been the heir to a fortune from his appointed guardian. In 1914, Simmel received an ordinary professorship with chair, at the then German University of Strassburg, but did not feel at home there. Because of the outbreak of World War I, all academic activities and lectures were halted as lecture halls were converted to military hospitals. In 1915 he applied – without success – for a chair at the University of Heidelberg. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, Simmel had not been very interested in contemporary history, but rather in looking at the interactions, art and philosophy of his time. However, after its start, he was interested in its unfolding. Yet, he seems to give conflicting opinions of events, being a supporter in "Germany's inner transformation", more objective in "the idea of Europe" and a critic in "The crisis of culture". Eventually, Simmel grew tired of the war, especially in the year of his death. He stopped reading the paper and withdrew to the Black Forest to finish his book. Shortly before the end of the war in 1918, he died from liver cancer in Strassburg. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Georg Simmel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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