Questões fundamentais da sociologia: Indivíduo e sociedade (Nova Biblioteca de Ciências Sociais)

by Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel é um dos maiores teóricos que emergiu na filosofia e nas ciências sociais alemãs na passagem do século XIX para o XX. Escrita em 1917, no final da vida de seu autor, essa obra tem o objetivo de oferecer ao público um texto curto e exemplar a respeito de problemas que ocupam a sociologia desde a sua fundação: a relação entre indivíduos e sociedade e os fatores que tornam possível a vida social.
Questões fundamentais da sociologia , primeira obra integral de sua autoria a ser publicada no Brasil e também conhecida como "pequena Sociologia" (por contraste com a "grande Sociologia", de 1908, em dois volumes), é o milésimo livro da Jorge Zahar Editor, que há 21 anos mantém o seu compromisso social de publicar obras de qualidade acessíveis a um público amplo, de estudantes a estudiosos, do leitor curioso ao especialista.

Genres: Sociology

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Georg Simmel was a major German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.

Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, asking 'What is society?' in a direct allusion to Kant's question 'What is nature?', presenting pioneering analyses of social individuality and fragmentation. For Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history". Simmel discussed social and cultural phenomena in terms of "forms" and "contents" with a transient relationship; form becoming content, and vice versa, dependent on the context. In this sense he was a forerunner to structuralist styles of reasoning in the social sciences. With his work on the metropolis, 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 would inform the eclectic critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

Simmel's most famous works today are The Problems of the Philosophy of History (1892), The Philosophy of Money (1907), The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903), Soziologie (1908, inc. The Stranger, The Social Boundary, The Sociology of the Senses, The Sociology of Space, and On The Spatial Projections of Social Forms), and Fundamental Questions of Sociology (1917). He also wrote extensively on the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, as well on art, most notably his book Rembrandt: An Essay in the Philosophy of Art (1916).

Reviews

[Hussain bk · Rating 2 out of 5]

تدور محاور هذا الكتاب في التساؤلات التالية ”هل تعزو ظهور الأفكار و الإبداعات إلى الفرد في مجتمعه بالخصوص أم إلى المجتمع بعمومه؟“ و ”هل يعرف المجتمع بمجموع الأفراد فيه أم بمجموع التفاعلات و الاندماج بين أفراد المجتمع الواحد؟“. يناقش الكتاب هذه التساؤلات و وغيرها من مشكلات العلم الاجتماعي القديم أو الكلاسيكي، و أبرزها ما ذكر في هذا الكتاب و التي تقول بأن القيم الاجتماعية في مجتمع ما هي المحرك الأساسي في أفعال الفرد فيه، و هي التي تنتجها في الفرد و ليست الفرد هو من ينتجها في المجتمع.

كتب هذه النصوص جورج زيمل، المفكر الاجتماعي الألماني ، قبل أكثر من مئة عام، ضمنا في مؤلفات عديدة واختار منها المترجم ستة فصول أدرجها في هذا الكتاب. و بحسب علم الاجتماع الحديث تعد غالبية الأفكار المطروحة في الكتاب كلاسيكية قديمة و ربما قد استبدلت بأفكار حديثة.

ربما لعدم جاذبية أسلوب الكاتب أو المترجم ، لم يعجبني سرد الأفكار و ترتيبها في الكتاب و أرى أنها تفتقد للأمثلة التي توضح بعض الأفكار مما صعب فهم النصوص. بغض النظر عن فائدة دراسة أفكار علم الاجتماع القديم، النص غير مرتب و يفتقد التشبيهات و الأمثلة الداعمة للأفكار.

[Ronaldo Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante ver esse trabalho do Simmel que passou décadas o aperfeiçoando e perceber como a delimitação da Sociologia foi uma questão para ele durante toda a vida. As vezes tomamos como garantido as fronteiras do conhecimento, mas houveram pensadores como Simmel que estabeleceram bases para nossas ciências de forma inimaginável.

Acredito que o seu enfoque em uma sociologia formal pode ter inúmeras aplicações hoje em dia. Suas aproximações com a filosofia são riquíssimas. E claro, sua forma de escrita e a recusa a se colocar em um enquadramento disciplinar tornam o autor ainda frutífero, ainda capaz de trazer infinitas reflexões sobre a sociedade.

[elis]

"Trata-se de uma peculiaridade do espírito humano o fato de ser capaz de erguer uma estrutura sólida sobre fundações conceitualmente frágeis."