The Social Theory of Georg Simmel by Nicholas J. Spykman

Author:Nicholas J. Spykman [Spykman, Nicholas J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780765805713
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 2004-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

1 Adapted from Soz., chap. iv, pp. 247-336.

2 Soz., pp. 247-64.

3 Soz., pp. 265-70.

4 Soz., pp. 271-77.

5 Soz., pp. 282-97.

6 Soz., pp. 306-23.

7 Soz., pp. 323-36.

CHAPTER III

THE NUMERICAL RELATIONS OF SOCIAL FORMS

THE QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF SOCIALIZATIONS1

IT WILL be conceded without hesitation that a group of a certain size must build organs, establish forms, and maintain regulations which a smaller group does not need. Mere observation shows that small groups, on the other hand, develop forms of interaction which disappear when they grow in size. It is possible to undertake an analysis of this quantitative determination and to trace some of the more important correlations between the forms of the socialization and the number of elements that are socialized.

This quantitative determination has two aspects, a negative and a positive one. The negative aspect is evident when there exists a numerical limit above or below which a specific form cannot occur. In case this specific form is the result of, or is possible only with, a definite content, then, if there is a correlation between the content and the size of the group, it can be realized only in groups of a certain size. In such a case the content determines the size of the group and thereby the form. The forms of communistic societies, of secret organizations, and of certain religious sects, which are all limited in their membership on account of their doctrines, are illustrations of this negative determination. The positive aspect is evident when a change is directly required by a purely quantitative modification of the group. In that case the size immediately determines the form.2

Definite correlations between characteristic sociological formations and arithmetically definable magnitudes appear only near the lower boundary of the numerical series. Higher up in the scale such a definite mathematical formulation is not possible, and the modifications must be formulated in terms of more or less. More precisely, however, the situation is this. To every definite number of elements there correspond, in accordance with the purpose and the spirit of their association, a specific sociological form, a characteristic organization, and a definite degree of firmness of texture. With every added or subtracted element these experience a modification, however small and indeterminable. There are, however, no special terms for these different sociological conditions, even in a case where the differences can be observed. This forces us to describe the situation as if it were a combination of two conditions with the one more, the other less conspicuous.

The Monad

The simplest structure which may be subsumed under the sociological category is the single individual, however paradoxical and essentially contradictory it may seem. The two phenomena, isolation and freedom, which appear in relation to the individual are distinctly of a sociological character. Not only are they characteristic of the relation between the individual and the group, but the amount of freedom and isolation which the group allows the individual elements is immediately significant for the structure of the whole.

The mere fact that an individual maintains no reciprocal relationships with other individuals is, of course, not sociological.

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