Simmel, Georg

SIMMEL, GEORG. - Philosopher, b. 1 March 1858 in Berlin, d. 26 Sept. 1918 in Strasbourg. He was a professor at the Universities of these two cities.

In his most significant writings (Die Probleme der Geschichtsphilos., Leipzig 1802; 5th ed. 1923; Einleitung in die Moralwissenschaft, 2 vols., Berlin 1892-93; 3rd ed., Stuttgart 1911; Hauptprobleme der Philos., Leipzig 1910; 7th ed., 1949, Italian trans., Florence 1922; Der Krieg und die geistigen Entscheidungen, Munich 1917; Der Konflikt der modernen Kultur, ibid. 1918, 2nd ed. 1921), through a constant appeal to Kant (v.), S. expounds his philosophy, which unfolds on two parallel and almost opposed planes: that of "values" (in the sense of the "philosophy of values" of Windelband [v.] and Rickert [v.]), eternal and independent of their empirical manifestation, and the other of "life" and history, where everything is relative. The two planes do not meet and remain juxtaposed; the synthesis of "value" and "life," of "absolute" and "historical," is lacking. It is, at bottom, the problem or the antinomy that characterizes almost all German historicism and that Dilthey (v.) believed he could resolve with the theory of the Grundformen. S., for his part, leans decidedly toward a form of relativism (v.) with the doctrine of "types," which would seek to reconcile objectivity and subjectivity: the "type" is universal and personal at once. Philosophy reflects the "types" of the human spirit under determinate circumstances; every philosophical system is a partial "point of view," which expresses the personality of the philosopher, it is an "individual reaction" in the face of the totality of being.

In his historical works (on Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc.) S. aims to characterize the types of philosophy or the personal reactions, which betray the irrepressible human demand to "attain unity." There exist, therefore, no absolute truths: life creates the truth in which it expresses itself and life itself destroys it. There are no immutable categories, but ever new categories can be created through historical becoming.

Michele Federico Sciacca