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Las grandes ciudades y la vida intelectual

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German sociologist Georg Simmel's 1903 essay contemplating the psychology of the the city dweller and the changes and adaptations made by the individual in response to rapidly changing urban stimuli, which in turn alters the social structures within a metropolitan environment.

90 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

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About the author

Georg Simmel

446 books223 followers
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).

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for Florian Lorenzen.
154 reviews166 followers
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October 21, 2025
Es ist nicht verfehlt, in dem nicht einmal 50 Seiten langen Aufsatz „Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben“ von Georg Simmel den Anbeginn der Stadtsoziologie zu sehen. Georg Simmel, neben Max Weber und Ferdinand Tönnies einer der drei Gründerväter der deutschen Soziologie, verfasste diesen Aufsatz im Jahr 1903 und legte damit einer der ersten Analysen über die gesellschaftlichen Effekte des Großstadtlebens vor.

Simmels zentrale These: Die Großstadt als Lebensraum formt das Denken, Fühlen und Verhalten seiner Bewohner. Der Stadtmensch wird stetig mit neuen, intensiven Sinneseindrücken wie Lärm, Menschenmengen, Reklame oder dem Straßenverkehr konfrontiert und entwickelt zum Selbstschutz eine, wie Simmel es nennt, Blasiertheit – eine gewisse Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber äußeren Einflüssen. Hinzu kommt, dass der Stadtmensch rationaler, berechenbarer und distanzierter als sein Pendant aus der Provinz agiert, was aber in einer Verflachung seiner sozialen Beziehungen mündet. Dies führt Simmel auf die Dominanz der Geldwirtschaft in den Großstädten zurück, bei der er auf sein drei Jahre zuvor veröffentlichtes Hauptwerk „Philosophie des Geldes“ zurückgreift. Einen weiteren Unterschied zwischen Stadt- und Landbewohner sieht Simmel in der Mode und im Lebensstil. Dadurch dass der einzelne Stadtbewohner in der Anonymität der Masse unterzugehen droht, versucht dieser sich qua individueller Mode und Lebensstil abzugrenzen und zu behaupten.

„Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben“ ist einer dieser Texte, die zwar weitaus mehr als 100 Jahre auf den Buckel, uns aber heute noch etwas zu sagen haben. Insbesondere die von Simmel attestierte Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber äußeren Einflüssen dürfte jeder, der für eine gewisse Zeit schon einmal in Berlin oder einer anderen großen Stadt gelebt hat, kennen. Ein historischer Text, den ich in einem Rutsch und mit Gewinn gelesen habe

Review auf Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQEHG0gAmqb
Profile Image for Paolo.
237 reviews9 followers
October 14, 2017
Nonostante la minuta mole, questo saggio di Simmel è davvero profondo. Padre della sociologia moderna, il filosofo si concentra sulla vita nelle grandi metropoli. Uno dei suoi concetti più famosi rimane indubbiamente quello della "intensificazione della vita nervosa". L'individuo sviluppa una sorta di indifferenza sociale perché colpito da troppi stimoli. In questo caos di messaggi però il cittadino può sperimentare un relativa libertà individuale.
Profile Image for سُندُس عَبدُاللَّه.
268 reviews223 followers
January 8, 2020
مقالة -أو أكثر- مترجمة عن العالم الألماني في علم الاجتماع: چورچ زيمويل.
مترجمة بمنصة معنى.
حول الحاضرة -الواقع المعاش- وتأثيره على الإنسان المعاصر، وأثر الإنسان فيه، وكيفية بحثه عن الفردانية والتصورات المختلفة عنها، وعلاقة ذلك بالاقتصاد، في تصوير الحالة الذهنية له كانعكاسات.
الترجمة ثقيلة فيما أرى، تحتاج بعض البساطة الأدبية خاصة امتلاء الملف بمصطلحات علم الاجتماع والفلسفة أحيانًا.
تشوقت لقراءة باقي مؤلفات أ. چورچ.
701 reviews78 followers
October 3, 2016
Se trata de la edición de una conferencia de Simmel sobre la vida en las grandes ciudades. La brevedad del texto se compensa un poco con un amplio estudio introdictorio, que ocupa las tres cuartas partes del libro, además de una bibliografía. Aunque Hermida edita bellos libros, creo que hubiera sido más lógico acompañar el texto con otros de Simmel. No obstante, es un estudio lleno de ideas sobre el dinero, la indiferencia de la vida social urbana, la acumulación de elementos culturales y el hastío que luego el sociólogo desarrolló en otros libros.
Profile Image for Mesoscope.
614 reviews353 followers
March 14, 2024
This essay is a classic reference point for the early-twentieth-century critique of rationalization and modernity, and it exists in close dialog with work of Max Weber and Georg Lukács on the same topic. Lukács cited Simmel's Philosophie des Geldes in his titanic essay on reification in Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein, and the influence of this work on his thinking is immediately obvious.

Simmel argues that in order to function, large cities must rationalize their social interactions to make them predictable and orderly. In one telling example, he points to the pocket watches that everyone carries, in order to coordinate themselves in terms of a superordinate, regulating conception of time.

The standardization that results from this rationalization, he argues, tends to drain experience of its individual color, and here one detects distant echoes of Hegel and Marx.

Simmel also calls out the pace of modern life as placing novel demands on our attention, and describes the characteristic mode of life in the city as blasiert, or blasé. In his view, the high frequency of inputs, along with constant changes and demands for our attention, cause people to rebound into a kind of studied indifference, and he sees this as especially impactful on our social interactions. People in modern cities, he reports, barely have the mental capacity to acknowledge their neighbors with a smile or even a glance, and when they do form groups, they tend to maintain strict boundaries, so they have space and security to allow their peculiar personalities to unfold with one another.

Having lived in Berlin for the last six years, I will tell you with 100% certainty that what he is describing here is not typical of modernity as a whole, but is completely typical of this city. Simmel was born in Berlin, went to school at Humboldt University in the heart of the city, and as far as I know, lived here until shortly before his death. The frosty standoffishness he describes and the tendency to socialize in little groups is completely typical of Berlin, but not at all typical of Paris, London, San Francisco, or New York, or probably even Munich or Cologne.

On this basis, I think Simmel somewhat overgeneralizes from his own experience and mis-diagnoses the social malaise he experiences as stemming from various features of modern life, when some of them would seem to me to be clearly rooted in peculiarities of local culture.
Profile Image for Steve.
345 reviews44 followers
January 13, 2023
Interesting exploration of the protective buffers we put up living in a metropolis to deal with the constantly changing stimuli that would otherwise overwhelm us - and the ramifications it has on our personalities. In turn, the very social structure of the city is both a result of, and the cause of, these adaptations. I like that Simmel manages to convey a critique of people (both urban and otherwise) without sounding judgmental. Even as he talks about personalities disintegrating from a chronic blasé attitude, he manages to speak of it matter-of-factly.

Although written 120 years ago, it provides much to think about in this century, especially with the use of self-checkouts, no-contact delivery apps, text messaging and chatting as a preferred way of interaction over face-to-face encounters (or even in preference to speaking on the telephone) and the new types of 'shells' that we erect around ourselves in an attempt to control the mental energy we are spending on each random encounter. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things, but they do come at a cost. Namely, a devaluing of everything in the objective world which leads to the sense that there is little meaning to life.
Profile Image for Nefeli.
15 reviews
August 21, 2025
Etwas anspruchsvolle Sprache, aber super auf den Punkt gebracht wie das Leben der Menschen in Großstädten ist. Trotz, dass der Text so alt ist, passen die Erkenntnisse in unsere heutige Zeit.
Profile Image for Orçun Güzer.
Author 1 book57 followers
May 2, 2020
Incredible analysis penetrating surface of daily life in a big city... I am not a sociologist but I guess this is article is a milestone in both urban sociology and cultural analysis. This is the 2nd time I've read it.
Profile Image for ebabehh.
63 reviews27 followers
Want to read
December 24, 2021
Out of the 10-15 assigned texts this semester, voted by students as the one they "learned the most from in this class."
Profile Image for Dieuwe Beersma.
14 reviews14 followers
November 18, 2025
"Die Atrophie der individuellen durch die Hypertrophie der objektiven Kultur ist ein Grund des grimmigen Hasses, den die Prediger des äußersten Individualismus, Nietzsche voran, gegen die Großstädte hegen, aber auch ein Grund, weshalb sie gerade in den Großstädten so leidenschaftlich geliebt sind, grade dem Großstädter als die Verkünder und Erlöser seiner unbefriedigtsten Sehnsucht erscheinen."
Profile Image for Antonella.
9 reviews
January 12, 2026
Clocked every1 in this city. In an extremely brief compendium: city is full of quirky "pick me" personalities, every1 is blasé to everything bc we r so overstimulated that we become understimulated ("intellectual" but... blasé really w more of an incline to rational prob solving > emotional small-town folk (lol)), and niches WILL BE capitalized off in the city - cos people like finding the next thing that will make em different from others (more but - these were my fav points #truth).
Profile Image for anne larouche.
373 reviews1,584 followers
December 27, 2025
Articles de Simmel qui emportent comme à l’habitude dans des réflexions durables, trouvées au détour d’une phrase !
Profile Image for Esteban Hernández.
21 reviews1 follower
April 4, 2025
En esta maravilla Simmel plantea el termino Blasée. Esta se refiere a una forma de apatía emocional y mental que desarrollan las personas en entornos urbanos modernos, especialmente en las grandes ciudades; un hastío. Lo más impactante, para mí, es que este artículo fue escrito en 1903.
En esta obra se plantea que los individuos en la ciudad están expuestos a una sobrecarga de estímulos (ruidos, personas, anuncios, interacciones superficiales), lo que los lleva a desarrollar una especie de indiferencia para protegerse del exceso de información.
Por otra parte, se encuentra una idea que alude hacia la desvalorización del mundo, donde todo se percibe como similar y carente de novedad, lo que genera un sentido de aburrimiento o distanciamiento con la realidad.
La vida urbana exige una actitud más racional y calculadora, dejando de lado las respuestas emocionales intensas que podrían experimentarse en comunidades más pequeñas. Ante ello, recalca que la interacción con otros tiende a ser funcional y superficial, marcada por el dinero y la racionalidad económica más que por vínculos afectivos.
La actitud Blasée no es necesariamente una elección, sino un mecanismo de defensa frente al ritmo acelerado y las demandas de la modernidad. Aunque protege a los individuos del agotamiento emocional, también puede conducir a la alienación y la falta de conexión con los demás.
Profile Image for Federico.
137 reviews6 followers
December 3, 2025
Banco publicar un ensayo más breve que un rant promedio de cualquier red social del siglo XXI, cuando de acuerdo a la lógica cuantitativa un libro parece ser tan bueno como la cantidad de páginas que contiene y por ende una buena idea se alarga y se repite hasta el hartazgo para satisfacer al editor. Si un cuento, o un ensayo, tienen un valor notable y son lo suficientemente independientes, no hace falta introducirlos en una edición gigantesca e innecesaria. Lamentablemente, como el ensayo (una conferencia) es -tan- corto, una introducción que no aporta absolutamente nada es bastante más larga que el texto de Simmel.

Con respecto al ensayo en sí, en la primera página y algunos párrafos por acá plantea las características de la vida en la ciudad con una claridad envidiable. Interesantísimos principios fundamentales de los que Simmel extrae definiciones que no sólo no comparto, eso no le importa a nadie, ni a mí mismo, sino que me parecen traída de los pelos. Hay un abismo inmenso, insondable, entre el diagnóstico inicial y las conclusiones del sociólogo, que lamentablemente hoy en día se dan por sentado por el Punto De Vista.
Profile Image for meri!.
9 reviews
October 2, 2023
Em “A metrópole e a vida mental”, Georg Simmel trata, sobretudo, sobre certas características da vida serem sintetizadas nos espaços urbanos, o que é capaz de explicar as atitudes sociais corriqueiras, que estamos muito condicionados a acelerar o tempo todo e que o individualismo, muito comum nas metrópoles, é forte barreira à necessidade de pensar na coletividade. O texto auxilia na reflexão da metrópole como local em que o indivíduo pode desempenhar vários papéis a depender de suas relações e ao mesmo tempo, esse mesmo indivíduo é do “outro”. De forma parecida, cada vez mais a cultura tem se tornado mais um aspecto mais objetiva que liga os indivíduos ao mercado.
Profile Image for Brandon.
54 reviews1 follower
June 29, 2024
i agree with a lot of Simmel's observations, but the argumentation in this small book is very vague. he takes many of his own premises for granted (eg the apparently infallible power of money in vacating the meaning within and between objects..) and without elaboration, which makes it all feel too repetitive and abstract. But i'm most frustrated that he didnt use any case studies. how can you discuss the Urban in relevant depth without naming a single city?
Profile Image for unet.
29 reviews9 followers
November 20, 2021
Discovered this from my college syllabus. Despite having to take several re-reading to understand what Simmel is trying to convey in some places, his (although very old) analysis has really impacted my world view. An eye opening read about life paces in urban and suburban spaces and how it affects the psyche of its inhabitants. Interesting concepts.
Profile Image for Zoë Moore.
80 reviews1 follower
July 20, 2024
Interesting sociological analysis of demands of mental life in city and perceptions of us and our relations depending where we are — but reaches limits with psuedo-neuroscience etc bc it is 20th century armchair writing. Read this on LA transit after reading a selection I’d seen as inspiration for Blade Runner — super meta trippy experience.
Profile Image for Çağla Mert.
113 reviews1 follower
June 11, 2025
Georg Simmel’s essay The Metropolis and Mental Life offers a compelling exploration of how urban life fundamentally shapes the individual’s psychology and social interactions.

This work remains highly relevant for understanding the complexities of modern city living, especially in terms of how metropolitan environments influence mental attitudes and behaviors.

Simmel’s analysis of the “blasé attitude” — a psychological adaptation to the overwhelming stimuli of the metropolis — resonates deeply with anyone familiar with the fast pace and sensory overload of city life. His insight into the protective mechanisms people develop to cope with urban anonymity and constant stimulation feels nuanced and prescient, anticipating many modern theories on urban alienation and mental health.

What I particularly appreciate about the essay is Simmel’s balanced tone. He neither romanticizes nor condemns the metropolis but presents a clear-eyed view of its paradoxes: it fosters individuality yet promotes impersonal social relations; it offers freedom yet breeds isolation. This duality captures the complexity of urban experience in a way that is still thought-provoking.

Overall, it’s a foundational text that offers deep insights into the psychology of urban living, and it continues to inspire reflection on how cities shape human experience, even if it requires some effort to fully unpack.
2 reviews
December 28, 2025
Essay about the metropolitan personality, or the psychological landscape that the metropolis encourages people to adopt in order to avoid being "swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism." Connects the metropolis with a compression of individuality or personality into the common language of time ("fixed framework...which transcends all subjective elements") and money ("Money is concerned only with...the exchange value which reduces all quality and individuality to a purely quantitative level"); the need to demonstrate irreplaceability and therefore rise of specialized types of labor (e.g. the quatorzième, or people whose job it was to make a dinner party 14 in the case 13 people showed); and the "blasé" attitude developed toward others because of the sheer number of social interactions every day.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Elizabeth Pecoraro.
104 reviews1 follower
November 17, 2021
Inspired by Margot to put the essays from class on here. This one took me long af to read but it makes a lot of sens. I wrote a paper relating it to the character of the professor in The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Profile Image for maria.
89 reviews
May 20, 2023
libro intramontabile e geniale. da leggere più e più volte per uscire dalla nostra bolla di indifferenza e iniziare veramente a comprendere gli altri. la città ci ha resi blasé e privi di empatia, riducendoci a un granello di sabbia in un mondo in cui ogni cosa è diventata affare privato
120 reviews1 follower
July 30, 2025
Δύο μικρά δοκίμια, με μεγάλο ενδιαφέρον για τις παρατηρήσεις τους πάνω στη ζωή στην πόλη και την κατασκευή της πραγματικότητας. Φυσικά και τα δύο αναφέρονται στην κατάσταση στις αρχές του 20ου αιώνα και δεν μπορούν να αγγίξουν τόσο το σήμερα.
Profile Image for Julia.
37 reviews3 followers
October 6, 2022
really interesting to a “new” new yorker
Profile Image for Po-Lit-Tot.
30 reviews1 follower
January 25, 2024
Sympa avant que le mec lâche les pires conneries racistes dans les dernières pages en essayant en même temps de se faire passer pour quelqu'un d'ouvert d'esprit
18 reviews1 follower
May 7, 2024
diagnóstico incrivelmente mais consistente que as análises weberianas e durkheimianas
Profile Image for Mars.
171 reviews7 followers
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June 13, 2024
University made me do it
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