The Sociological Interpretation Of The Money In “The Philosophy Of Money”

Georg Simmel is a very important sociologist and philosopher during classic sociological theory times. This paper mainly contains three aspects. First of all, we analyze the methodology of Simmel's formal sociology in detail. In general, in Simmel's view, society can be divided into form and content. But only the form has social signif icance, so sociology should use form as an entry point to study social interaction. In Simmel's analysis he should determine what characteristics the money has as a social form first. Then he explain, by a conceptual framework, what influence money brings to the social life. Secondly we further explain how Simmel study money with his method of sociology and interpret the money's impact on modern people's life. Meanwhile we can discover the relationship between money and modernity. In Simmel's opinion, money is a common denominator of all value, it is neutral and has no quality.It is a instrument, but up to this day it become an end in itself. All these characteristics have high-modernity, so the money eventually f igures human-being's modern lives. Simmel used concepts of distance?speed and rhythm to state this impact. For example, under the money's influence, people are becoming more reasonable and calculat ing, their life is becoming high-speed and everything is according to a strictly rhythmic schedule. And lastly, following S immel's method, we analyze realities in today's society, explore what kind of revelation can this master of sociology bring to us and our studies about modernity.