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Sociology
Georg Simmel's The Philosophy of Money centers on the subject of money and its social meaning to the individual and the society. In his discourse, Simmel discusses how money becomes the symbol of a rational society, which is highly impersonal, rational, and calculable. This argument is due to the characteristically lesser interaction between or among people interacting on strictly impersonal situations, i.e., business transactions where there is an exchange of money (from the buyer) and good or service (from the producer/seller). Furthermore, societal relations among people may decrease, but individual empowerment, because it "increase personal freedom and fosters social differentiation" (Coser, 1977:193-4). In effect, through Simmel's discourse on the social meaning of money, society shift from being a close-knit to a mass society.
If Simmel's arguments about the social meaning of money will be applied in the context of the credit card industry, most of the viewpoints he expressed are indeed characteristic of the interaction among people who transact by means of credit cards. When Simmel stated, "If, thus, value is at the same time the offspring of price, it seems to be an identical proposition that their height must be the same" (Simmel, 1900). This contention is the quantitative of money or other medium used commensurate to the value of money. By mentioning the quantitative aspect of money, and, in this case, credit cards, Simmel goes on to distinguish the qualitative from the quantitative aspect: that credit cards may have the same value of money, but these monetary media cannot replace the degree of social interaction of people conducting these transactions through these monetary media. Thus, because credit cards are examples of monetary media that lessens social interaction but provides 'personal freedom,' society today is characteristically a mass society because of the credit card industry.
Bibliography
Coser, L. (1977). Introduction to Sociology. New York: Harcourt-Brace.
Simmel, G. (1900). A Chapter in the Philosophy of Value. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 5.
These women were called "fashionably dressed hell-raisers." They dressed up to show their personal pride as well as to be noticed by men. Although advertising was growing significantly during Simmel's time, it was nothing compared to what it is now. Simmel would be amazed to see the role that fashion now plays in society. Millions of dollars are spent today by advertisers to get the right image to market their
From this perspective, the field of sociology is involved in the analysis of the patterns of these interactions. Therefore, for Simmel Sociology is more than just the study of "natural laws." Simmel also emphasized the study of small groups. This differed for the classical theorists like Durkheim and Marx. The primary contemporary interest in Simmel's work stems from the analysis of individual action within the ambit of the structural approach.
Therefore the commerce under analysis is not a mere relation of exchange, but is a relation in which two forces become actively involved. Since it is man who initiates the process then it results that man is free to act as he wishes and not determined in his actions. The fact that this process is initiated in times of hardship demonstrate the fact that will and freedom are not enough
Marx/Durkheim/Simmel At the time of the Industrial Revolution, philosophy had already dealt substantially with the notion of "division of labour" although the terminology was slightly different. Our modern sense of the division of labour is, of course, largely derived from nineteenth century industrial capitalism, and it was based on this paradigm that sociological thinkers like Marx, Durkheim, and Simmel would analyze the phenomenon. But we might note by way of introduction
Symbolic Interactionism The objective of this study is to contrast and compare the work of Simmel and Mead on Symbolic Interactionism. Toward this end, a review of literature in this area of inquiry will be conducted. Symbolic interactionism is a primary sociological perspective that George Herbert Mead advanced through bringing "rigorous substance to this emergent micro-level analysis." (Bloch, nd) From the view of symbolic interactionism, "society is the sum total of the
The culture industry, which is centered in cities, thus robs the individual of their freedom to participate in the culture-at-large, forcing them into the role of pure consumer. The unity of style as it manifests itself in cultural products is an expression of social power. The greatest artists thus have a mistrust of style, as the hierarchies of power have constructed it; their greatness thus lies in their inherent