Volume 24, Number 2, 2020 Simmel in Latinamerica Guest-edited by Esteban Vernik

EN:

In his Staatliche Theorie des Geldes, published in 1905, Georg Friedrich Knapp presented the thesis that underlies so-called ‘chartalism’: “Das Geld ist ein Geschöpf der Rechtsordnung.” Formulated at a time when the basing of money on precious metal was considered indispensable (metalism), Knapp’s theory seeks an eminently social foundation of money, based on the legal order and the State. Knapp thus moved away from more substantialist conceptions of money; his theory is based on the practical functions and performances of money and points to the decisive problem of trust (in the acceptability and value of money). Although Georg Simmel, in his Philosophie des Geldes, published in 1900, did not develop a properly chartalist approach, he offers a number of points of support to the chartalist theory. The overcoming of the substantial character of money in favour of its functional character and his conception of money as relation, as well as the logical genesis of money and value as eminently social, offers a foundation to a social theory of money, of which the state theory of money suggested by Knapp would be a modalization.

EN:

The aim of this article is to expose some threads of continuity between Philosophie des Geldes and a less explored writing of Georg Simmel’s theoretical trajectory, namely: Einleitung in die Moralwissenschaft. To this end, I argue that in this early text Simmel proposes a psychological, sociological, and historical method to examine morality issues, which he later replicates in his approach regarding modern monetary economics. At the same time, I state that both works share resemblances in terms of the exposed topics: The opus magnum of 1900, like that early writing, gives great relevance to ethical issues. On this basis, I evidence the methodological affinity between these texts by comparing the Berliner’s treatment of moral duty, on the one hand, and economic value, on the other. Having done this, I explain how the thesis on the conflict of values delineated by young Simmel is then revisited in Philosophie des Geldes to account for the tension between economic value and the value of people.

EN:

Following Simmel's legacy, the present paper shows how ‘sensory memories’ and emotions are related to the meanings attributed to the smells of human and non-human entities in the metropolis. Based on the findings of a larger research project on urban youth in Mexico City, the article emphasizes how even though the smell is one of the most undervalued senses; it has a significant presence, not only unpleasant but also pleasant memories. In other words, these findings show how ‘sensory memory’ permits a ‘somatic work’ (Vannini et al. 2012) on the sensations and emotions that have persisted in our sensitive bodies, in which smell is not necessarily a “dissociating sense” as Simmel believed, even in the metropolis.

EN:

Humiliation is both an emotional state and the social situation that produces it as well. This paper inquires into both dimensions, departing from Georg Simmel’s perspective and questions in his sociology of emotions, especially his thoughts on shame. Based on historical cases and literary examples, the paper analyzes humiliation as a composite emotional state (mixture of shame, wrath and sadness), and the distinctive features of it as a «form» of interaction. Regarding the latter, it is highlighted (a) its relational character, (b) the realization of a type of action whose purpose is degrading, (c) a representation of human value which is injured precisely by that action, and usually (d) its public character. It is warned about the main effects that humiliation may have at the subjective (resentment and thirst for revenge) and at the social level (increase of conflict, maintenance or instauration of an asymmetrical balance of forces, divisive effect and social stigmatization). In view of such negative consequences, the essay concludes by considering the main ways in which humiliation could be limited in our social life.

EN:

This working paper arises from the conviction that it is possible to propose a temporally oriented sociology with Georg Simmel. From his idea of the extension of the present, which belongs to his philosophy of history as to his sociology and philosophy of life, this paper looks forward to contributing to discussions related to historical experience, as well as collective and cultural memory, and social imagination. Framed within an ongoing research experience on future imaginaries of former guerrilla fighters in process of re-incorporation to the civilian life in the city of Medellin (Colombia), and resorting to other authors with problematizations on the present as a particular mediator between past and future, we state that an extended present in which a fundamentally traumatic past is constantly stalking and conditioned to the expectancies concerning the fiction of the new beginning characteristic of the post-conflictual imaginary is a particular feature of the Colombian temporal regime.