Some Questions to Georg Simmel’s Ethics (in his Essay “The Individual Law”)

Abstract

Georg Simmel’s heritage is seldom identified with the subject of ethics. He is mostly consid­ered as a representative of the ‘philosophy of life’, who didn’t make a significant contribu­tion to its development. Some of his works, in which he has worked out a peculiar ethical representation, seem more surprising. This ‘popular’ ethic is attractive today because it fo­cuses on the real, living person with fragile existence and easy changeable values, ideals and principles. His or her actions don’t always correspond to the ethical model, but it doesn’t mean that they are unethical. Ethics as a theory doesn’t match with ethics as the real practice of human life: this idea represents Simmel’s starting point and forms his concept as the ethics of individuality. I would like to discuss some conspicuous problems in Simmel’s in­terpretation of ethics in his essay ‘the individual law’ as well as his criticism of the general ethics of Immanuel Kant. Simmel asks basic questions that each intelligent person is con­cerned with: What is the meaning of duty and morality? How should you adapt these cate­gories to your own life? Can a person do something without ethics? The Simmel’s solutions are not ideal. They ask for comments. I want to discuss their advantages and disadvantages and see whether Simmel’s project can be explained as ethics at all.