Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel
Born	1 March 1858 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	26 September 1918(1918-09-26) (aged 60) Strassburg, German Empire
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Berlin (PhD)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Neo-Kantianism Lebensphilosophie
Institutions	University of Berlin University of Strasbourg
Notable students	György Lukács, Robert E. Park, Max Scheler
Main interests	Philosophy, sociology
Notable ideas	Formal sociology, social forms and contents, the tragedy of culture, web of group affiliation

Georg Simmel (/ˈzɪməl/; German: [ˈzɪməl]; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.

Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, asking "what is society?"—directly alluding to Kant's "what is nature?"—presenting pioneering analyses of social individuality and fragmentation. Simmel discussed social and cultural phenomena in terms of "forms" and "contents" with a transient relationship, wherein form becomes content, and vice versa dependent on context. In this sense, Simmel was a forerunner to structuralist styles of reasoning in the social sciences.

Through "The Metropolis and Mental Life" Simmel was a precursor of urban sociology, symbolic interactionism, and social network analysis. An acquaintance of Max Weber, Simmel wrote on the topic of personal character in a manner reminiscent of the sociological ideal type. He broadly rejected academic standards, however, philosophically covering topics such as emotion and romantic love. Both Simmel and Weber's nonpositivist theory informed the eclectic critical theory of the Frankfurt School.