"Georg Simmel: Decentering the Self and Recovering Authentic Individuality". Issue 2 (3rd April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McCole, John
• Is Part Of: Germanic review. Volume 94:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 151
• Page End: 162
• Publication Date: 2019-04-03
• Subjects: Simmel/self/decentered self/individuality/law of the individual/moral conflict/multiple authenticities; Germanic philology -- Periodicals; Philologie germanique -- Périodiques; Germaanse talen; Letterkunde; 430.05
• DOI: 10.1080/00168890.2019.1585669
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-8890

Abstract

Abstract : This essay argues argues that there is a persistent tension between two visions of the self in Simmel's work. In one of these, which I call a decentered conception, the self is characterized by complex, socially-constituted multiplicity. In the other, Simmel strove to understand and reconstruct the grounds for an authentically unique individuality, particularly though not exclusively in his late work. Each of these visions is richer and more complex than has sometimes been appreciated. Important recent arguments about Simmel's late work, including "The Law of the Individual, " The View of Life, and his Lebensphilsophie in general, have seen it as putting forward a conception of the relational self that overcame this tension. I argue that unreconciled tensions remained, though it is true that his late work was the culmination of his sociological project, not its abandonment. I propose that Simmel's mature conception of individuality would be better captured by the notion of multiple authenticities rather than a singular, unified law of the individual. This would have been more in keeping with his sociology as well as with his views about the importance of moral conflict.