Metropolis and Mental Life

Even though Simmel was not called a founder of sociology as Weber, Marx, or Durkheim, his beliefs and ideas have a similar wide focus within a society, yet Simmel focuses mainly on the experience of an individual within the city, social action and interaction. By analyzing the nature social life Simmel tries to join the experiences of an individual and social interaction with a greater structure which characterizes societies in the present day.

Instead of arguing, the problems in elderly periods were bigger or smaller compare to this times, Simmel considers that maintaining individuality and autonomy its the latest form that human development has taken. He also states, in modern life the struggle is more mental, rather than physical which in the early times was. He attacks this issues using a comparative approach like Weber, Durkheim and Marx's. He insists, in early times, humans had to struggle with nature in order to survive, yet in the eighteen century it resulted to in the freedom of social bonds, as well as the religious domination. He also argues in the nineteen century the development of liberalization and liberty, which is like Durheim’s division of labour and specialization. Within this modern system, everyone is indispensable and dependent of others. Simmel starts with the examination of these modern developments and forces, specially the metropolis and urbanization, and the effect of individuals personalities and their inner life. When he identifies the overwhelming of social forces, he argues that a “person resists to being level down and worn out by a social-technological mechanism” (Simmel,1964). His thinking could be simplified to individuals in the modern society have a motivation, or types of characteristics which is part of the personality that a person develops. Simmel’s concern is to look at the connection of metropolis, individuals, and individual contents of life. While he is concentrating primarily in the development of metropolis, as well...