The view of life : four metaphysical essays, with journal aphorisms

239 Pages·2010·1.01 MB·English

by  Georg Simmel

The View of Life
Translated by John A. Y. Andrews and Donald N. Levine
With an Introduction by Donald N. Levine and Daniel Silver
and an Appendix, “Journal Aphorisms, with an Introduction”
Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by John A. Y. Andrews
The View of Life
Four Metaphysical Essays with Journal Aphorisms
GEorG SiMMEl
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
John A. Y. Andrews is a consultant for the Rhode Island Department of Human Services’
Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid). He has a BA in religious studies from Yale University
(1976) and an MA in sociology from the University of Chicago (1982). Donald N. Levine is
professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Chicago and author of Powers of the Mind
(2006). Daniel Silver is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2010 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-75783-4 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-75783-8 (cloth)
Originally published in German as Lebensanschauung: Vier metaphysische Kapitel
Duncker & Humblot, 1918
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Simmel, Georg, 1858–1918.
[Lebensanschauung. English]
The view of life : four metaphysical essays, with journal aphorisms / Georg Simmel ;
translated by John A. Y. Andrews and Donald N. Levine ; with an introduction by Donald N.
Levine and Daniel Silver and an Appendix, “Journal Aphorisms, with an Introduction” edited,
translated, and with an introduction by John A. Y. Andrews.
p. cm.
“Originally published in German as Lebensanschauung: Vier Metaphysische Kapitel.
Duncker & Humblot, 1918”—t.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-75783-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-75783-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Metaphysics. 2. Life. 3. Death.
4. Individuality. I. Levine, Donald Nathan, 1931– II. Andrews, John A. Y. III. Simmel, Georg,
1858–1918. Fragmente und Aufsätze. English. IV. Title.
B3329.S63L413 2010
193—dc22 2010004863
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Messo t’ho innanzi: omai per te ti ciba;
Ché a sé torce tutta la mia cura
Quella materia ond’io son fatto scriba.
Dante to the Reader
I have served you: for you now the meal;
Since all my concern is turned
To that matter for which I was made scribe.

Contents
Introduction ix
Note on the Translation xxxiii
1. Life as Transcendence 1
2. The Turn toward Ideas 19
3. Death and Immortality 63
4. The Law of the Individual 99
Appendix: Journal Aphorisms, with an Introduction 155
Notes from Simmel’s “Metaphysics” File 189
Index 193

IntroduCtIon
Lebensanschauung, rendered here as The View of Life, stands as the last
of Georg Simmel’s publications issued during his lifetime. Printed in
December 1918 by Duncker und Humblot, the book’s four metaphysi-
cal essays seek to articulate, at the most basic level, what the world
consists in when we approach it from “the view of life.”
Simmel began this work in 1914 with his move to Strassburg
from Berlin, where he had lived, studied, and worked since his birth
in 1858. Deeply enmeshed in Berlin’s vibrant cultural scene, Simmel
lectured at the University of Berlin without a regular faculty appoint-
ment. Jewish, intellectually nonconformist, irreverent toward standard
academic etiquette, he was truly a “stranger” in the academy—at once
inside and outside, near and distant. Coupled with a personal dispo-
sition toward individuality and philosophical conviction in its value,
his marginal professional position led to periods of unmatched intel-
lectual creativity and fecundity: pathbreaking work in the philosophy
of history and ethics; strikingly original investigations into the nature
and consequences of a money economy; foundational statements for
the discipline of sociology; bracing interpretations of Kant, Goethe,
Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche.
Simmel’s writings are essayistic, his topics varied. Nevertheless, his
work was animated, often implicitly, by a set of core issues that beat
like a pulse throughout his corpus. Most centrally, these concern the