On Simmel’s Life Philosophy

Simmel has been presenting himself in the history of philosophy with the dualidentities of both the sociologist and the life philosopher, to the latter of which notenough attention has been paid. With Simmel’s life philosophy being the central focus,this dissertation intends to perform an overview of Simmel’s whole thoughts from theperspective of his life philosophy, and then observe that his life philosophy is the innerclue and theoretical foundation of his thoughts. Understanding Simmel’s thoughts byway of his life philosophy helps the grasp of Simmel’s central points.Simmel’s life philosophy embodies the consciousness of the time’s problems. Fromthe crisis of modernity, Simmel finds the transition of modern spiritual base----lifebecomes the base of the spirit. Transcendency being its nature, life philosophy keepsincarnating itself by constructing and demolishing forms. Simmel defines this conflictof life and form as life’s permanent tragedy. Life’s constant transcendences enablegenerative view of life and life’s purpose and truth gains their relative value because ofthis generativity; and eventually this generativity contributes to the generation of unity,which is the ultimate meaning where the individual life and the collective life stay inperfect harmony. In the aspect of the realistic problem of life, the conflict between lifeand form caused the inevitability of life’s alienation, which is reflected in the repressionof material culture over human culture, subversion of means against ends; deviation ofvalue against life, etc. The way to eliminate such alienation is to return to the interior oflife so as to realize self-preservation and self-elevation in the pursuit of transcendences.Simmel focuses on the realistic world of life and endeavors to solve practical problemsby his quest for the metaphysical meaning of life. Both Simmel’s theories and practicesof life philosophy still prove valuable today.