Georg Simmel and German culture : unity, variety and modern discontents / Efraim Podoksik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Podoksik, Efraim, author.

Series:

Ideas in context ; 135.

Ideas in context ; 135

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Simmel, Georg, 1858-1918.

Simmel, Georg.

Sociologists--Germany--Biography.

Sociologists.

Sociology--Philosophy--History.

Sociology.

Germany--Civilization.

Germany.

Germany--Intellectual life--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 336 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

The significance of the German philosopher and social thinker, Georg Simmel (1858-1918), is only now being recognised by intellectual historians. Through penetrating readings of Simmel's thought, taken as a series of reflections on the essence of modernity and modern civilisation, Efraim Podoksik places his ideas within the context of intellectual life in Germany, and especially Berlin, under the Kaiserreich. Modernity, characterised by the growing differentiation and fragmentation of culture and society, was a fundamental issue during Simmel's life, underpinning central intellectual debates in Imperial Germany. Simmel's thought is depicted here as an attempt at transforming the complexity of these debates into a coherent worldview that can serve as an effective guide to understanding their main parameters. Paying particular attention to the genealogy and usage of the concepts of Bildung, culture and civilisation in Germany, this study offers contextual analyses of Simmel's philosophies of culture, society, art, religion and the feminine, as well as his interpretations of Dante, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Goethe and Rembrandt.

Contents:

Bildung, Kultur, crisis

Unity in variety

Unity versus variety

Unity above variety.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 Jul 2021).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-99753-8

1-108-99773-2

1-108-99078-9