Simmel, Georg (gā`ôrk zĭm`əl), 1858–1918, German philosopher and sociologist. At the universities of Berlin and Strasbourg he was an influential lecturer. Basing his social philosophy on a broad historical foundation, he did much to establish German sociology as an independent discipline. His chief works are Soziologie (1908) and Lebensanschauung [philosophy of life] (1918).

Bibliography

See his On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings, ed. and with an introd. by D. N. Levine (1971); biography by D. Frisby (1984); essays by and about Simmel, edited by K. H. Wolff (1965); studies by N. J. Spykman (1925, repr. 1964), L. A. Coser (1965), and D. Frisby (1981).

Simmel, Georg

(born March 1, 1858, Berlin, Ger.—died Sept. 26, 1918, Strassburg) German sociologist and philosopher. From teaching posts at the universities of Berlin (1885–1914) and Strassburg (1914–18), Simmel did much to establish sociology as a basic social science in Germany. He sought to isolate the general forms or recurrent regularities of social interaction from the specific content of definite kinds of activity, such as political, economic, or aesthetic. He gave special attention to the problem of authority and obedience. His ideas became influential in the U.S. through the works of Robert E. Park, Albion Small, and Ernest Burgess. See also interactionism.