Georg Simmel’s The Philosophy of Money and the Modernization Paradigm

Andrzej Karalus

Georg Simmel’s The Philosophy of Money and the Modernization Paradigm

Abstract

This article examines Georg Simmel’s contribution to the understanding of how money functions in modern society, mainly scrutinizing his most important work on that topic, The Philosophy of Money, in the context of modernization theories. Modernization theories, as developed (most notably) by Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Elias, attempted to explain the transition from feudalism and a closed agrarian economy to capitalism and industrial society, as well as to understand and predict the avenues, consequences, and dangers of that transformation. The author argues that Simmel’s work and his theoretical framework fit neatly into the “modernization paradigm” template and, in fact, constitute one of its finest articulations. The conclusion points at those aspects of Simmel’s sociology that transcend the boundaries of modernization discourse and make him a forerunner of the postmodernist structure of “feeling.”

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Andrzej Karalus dr

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artykuł w czasopiśmie wyróżnionym w JCR

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Polish Sociological Review pages 429 - 445,
ISSN: 1231-1413

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English

Publication year:

2018

Bibliographic description:

Karalus A.: Georg Simmel’s The Philosophy of Money and the Modernization Paradigm// Polish Sociological Review. -, nr. 4(204) (2018), s.429-445

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