Simmel

Georg Simmel Georg Simmel is German sociologist, philosopher, and critic from the 19th century. Simmel graduated from the University of Berlin with his Bachelors after studying philosophy and history. Simmel later graduated with his Doctorate also from the University of Berlin with his thesis on Kant’s philosophy of matter. Once graduating with his doctorate Simmel began to teach lectures on different topics such as ethics, logic, philosophy, and of course sociology. Even though Simmel was German he has made some major contributions to sociology in America, for which he is most noted. Sociology is the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. Simmel himself conceived what he called a new concept of sociology and his approach to sociology, which dealt social interaction. Simmel's approach to sociology can best be understood as a self-conscious attempt to deny the theories of Comte and Spencer, as well as the historical description of events that were appreciated in his native Germany. The web definition of social interaction is “An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring.” There are many different forms of social interaction that Simmel has come up with such as: ‘the stranger’, ‘the mediator’, ‘the poor’, ‘the adventurer’, ‘the man in the middle’, and ‘the renegade’. The concept of ‘the stranger’ is the one form that is focused on more within Simmel’s theory. The idea of the stranger was such a important topic to Simmel that he even wrote an essay titled “The Stranger” that has gotten a lot of attention. The idea behind ‘the stranger’ is that it is someone who is in a group that is close with the group but yet still isolated and has their distance. There are two popular quotes by Simmel that are often said when it comes to talking about a stranger. A stranger is not someone “who comes today and goes tomorrow,” but “a person that comes today and stays tomorrow.”