1,721,040 research outputs found
“Sehnsucht” (nostalgia): anatomia di un concetto nella Teoria critica di Max Horkheimer
Full text linkThe aim of this contribution is to analyze the theme of nostalgia (“Sehnsucht”) in the
work of Max Horkheimer (1895-1973). This theme refers not only to a personal
emotional state (“Stimmung”) but also serves as a lens for understanding both our
era and the course of the world from a sociocultural perspective. In a broad
analysis, nostalgia emerges as a defining feature of Horkheimer’s contributions to
Critical Theory. It transcends mere occurrence and acts as an underlying sentiment
that permeates all his analyses, from his early writings to his later works. Through a
careful examination of Horkheimer’s texts (both published and unpublished) as well
as secondary scholarly literature on the author, this essay aims to offer a particular
interpretation of Critical Theory. In addressing thinkers like Paul Tillich and through
a renewed engagement with Arthur Schopenhauer - referred to as Horkheimer’s
Schopenhauer-Marxismus (Wiggershaus) - the Frankfurt School emphasizes the
necessity for sociologists to adopt a “disenchanted” and “disillusioned” perspective.
This viewpoint emerges against the backdrop of a dialogue among the sociological,
theological, and ethical-political spheres, which has gained considerable interest in
the latest generation of Critical Theory
Die Umdrehung der Werte: The Ambivalent Intellectual Relationship between Georg Simmel and Max Scheler
No full textThis paper explores the intellectual and the biographical relationship between Georg Simmel (1858-1918) and Max Scheler (1874-1928). This topic has been examined through correspondences, direct and indirect references, as well as investigations in the Munich Archive (Bayersiche Staatsbibliothek – BSB). Simmel and Scheler lived in Berlin in the early twentieth century, so they shared the German Jahrhundertwende “Zeitgeist” and many fascinations, anxieties, hopes, and feelings. Scheler was Simmel’s pupil (Berliner Humboldt Universität) in 1895, but they were destined to meet again and again. Simmel attended some of Scheler’s lectures as he searched for his theoretical path. Their roots of reciprocal influence also spanned many indirect interests and they developed personal acquaintance. There are many similarities and affinities in Simmel’s and Scheler’s work, that behind the reciprocal effect of their respective intellectual work hide an undeniable and unavoidable ambivalence. They converge on many topics (the cultural and moral analysis of values, the rediscovery of “emotional” issues in the foundation of social and cultural theory, the historical and anthropological interests, etc.), even though their respective philosophical and sociological findings were quite different. Scheler’s “essentialist” position, in opposition to some Simmelian “functionalism” (i.e. relationalism), does not detract from the mighty importance of Simmel’s unique approach, which brought a breath of novelty to both philosophical and sociological fields through its eclectic and innovative inquiry into modernity and from Scheler’s new phenomenological approach. The interaction between Simmel and Scheler was certainly significant for both of them, surely for defining and clarifying their own philosophy of culture as well as their anthropological and sociological achievements
Georg Simmel and the Question of Pessimism. A socio-philosophical Analysis between "Wertfrage" and "Lebensphilosophie"
No full textDie Gesellschaft ist »meine Vorstellung«. Prolegomena to Simmel's nominalist social Philosophy
No full textGeorg Simmel and the "Relational Turn". Contributions to the foundation of the Lebenssoziologie since Simmel
No full textLa vita (sociale) "cucita a fil doppio" col conflitto: il programma della Lebenssoziologie di Georg Simmel
No full textBeing grateful to Georg Simmel. Emotions, gratitude, and the relational concern of sociology in the globalized society
Full text linkThis paper argues for a sociological and relational concern of “gratitude” in Simmel’s thought as a key feature of human interaction as well
as a key “emotive disposition” (Stimmung) to engage with the challenges of modern society. Georg Simmel is undoubtedly one of the most
crucial theorists and a pillar in the social sciences, and his theoretical contribution also stands as the foundation of relational sociology stricto
sensu. He taught that interactions supporting social processes must be investigated as forms of relations. A relation is a precise mode of being
connected to others; it is a tie emerging from reciprocal action and acquires its consistency by generating causal effects on involved actors.
Among his main insights within the sociological tradition, Simmel’s excellent concepts and arguments engage emotions as a sociological
matter, that is, under a relational aspect. Not only do emotions have sociological relevance (that is, they are a worthy subject for sociologists),
but they also characterize the precise manner of interaction among individuals. Emotions are the relational effect of being associated in an
increasingly differentiated society, which apparently only neutralizes individuals’ emotive sides, or else instrumentally drives or “colonizes”
them. Simmel explored gratitude as a particular emotion that is a form of relation and interaction: it has an eccentric position among the
other emotions that he investigated in his many essays. Gratitude represents a non-symmetrical or economic (exchangeable) “transactive”
emotion: it puts the giver and receiver in a peculiar socio-emotional form of reciprocity. By considering relations, emotions, and gratitude
through rigorous textual exploration, this paper tackles Simmel’s view and challenges a globalized world and hybridized digital society.
Finally, gratitude could be regarded as a demarcation criterion for identifying and distinguishing social interaction forms from other kinds of
non-social processes or transactions
The Tragedy of Culture and the Culture of Tragedy: Some Remarks on Georg Simmel's Sociology of Culture and His Interpretation of Schopenhauer's Philosophy
Full text linkGeorg Simmel furnished many profound resources to social sciences and philosophy of culture: his contribution stands as a pillar within the frame of humanities also for his efforts in order to understand his epochal historical-cultural shift. Founding a new science (sociology) crosses to Simmel’s conviction to highlight and to explain both modern individual and social lives. In this regard, the question arising from the very sociological field belongs to the need to focus on the new mechanisms in the cultural sphere, that is grasping a radical fracture between “subjective and objective spirit”. This paper aims at exploring the interpretation of Schopenhauer’s philosophy in the sociology of culture of Georg Simmel towards his cultural theory. Analysing Simmel’s works on Schopenhauer and pessimism, it emerges a philosophical and sociological frame which basically fits with some topics regarding his view on the “tragedy of culture”. It will be argued through three main phases in Simmel’s thought: 1. the question of pessimism (from the early writings to Philosophie des Geldes); 2. the discovery of (the “dialectics” of) the tragedy of culture (middle intellectual production); 3. Schopenhauer and the Lebensphilosophie (the last writings). Finally, this paper shows the convergence of some Simmelian hints and views with the recent debate in sociological and philosophical fields which argue for a “crisis” theory or for the analysis of the “pathologies of the social life”
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