Discuss Simmel’s concept of duality and how it affects the nature of individuality.
What will be an ideal response?
His emphasis on the duality existing between society and the individual led him to define sociology as the study of social interaction or, as he often called it, “sociation.” But it was not interaction per se that interested Simmel. Rather, he sought to analyze the forms in which interaction takes place. For instance, understanding the specific content of interactions that take place between an employer and employee—what they talk about and why—is not of central concern to sociologists.
Nowhere is the duality between individual identity and the “web of association” expressed more vividly than in Simmel’s discussion of the nature of modern society. For Simmel, modern, urban societies allow individuals to cultivate their unique talents and interests, but at the same time also lead to a “tragic” leveling of the human spirit.
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