Re-Discovering Simmel: Genealogy, Pragmatism, and the Philosophy-Sociology Relationship

Martin Kusch

This paper discusses some central themes in the work of Georg Simmel (1858-1918). Today Simmel is primarily remembered as a founder of sociology. His contributions to philosophy tend to be remembered only in the context of so-called "continental thought" (primarily as it related to the "philosophy of life"). But this historiography ignores Simmel's important work on the philosophy of history, the philosophy of the social sciences, the genealogy of morals, or pragmatism. My paper will argue for the significance of these later themes also for scholarship in "analytic philosophy".