Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/61

Rh coincidence, in his character, of the highest faculty of analytical thought with the gift of artistic representation ; the perfect harmony between analysis and synthesis, between scientific abstraction and emotional contemplation. In his Introduction to Moral Science, which investigates the principles of ethics, as well as in his Social Differentiation, Simmel has already touched problems which, lying at a great distance from the broad way of university science, are darkly looming from out the multitude of social psychological questions; and here already he has brought light into many a dark corner of the science of sociology. The Philosophy of Money, which in many ways excels his former works, is the keystone of his social psychological investigations and a document of the relative interpretation of life which may be called Simmel's particular Weltanschauung.

In this book the attempt has been made to single out one particular question from the multitude of problems and to show the totality of its meaning in the singular phenomenon by following the chain of ideas which, beyond any merely historical evolution of its substance, leads far beyond the merely accidental historical realization. Analysis and synthesis are necessary complements to each other, and Simmel does justice to the totality which lies in their union in treating the problem analytically and synthetically, and in exceeding mere representation.

In artistic symmetry the analytical and the synthetical part are standing side by side. The former is divided into the following chapters: "Value and Money;" "The Substance-Value of Money;" "Money in the Succession of Purposes (Zweckreihen);" the latter, into the chapters "Individual Liberty," "The Money Equivalent of Personal Values," and "The Style of Life."

It is impossible to treat critically the contents of the whole work of nearly 600 pages, though it is difficult to pass by so much beauty and so many new thoughts. We can only get a glimpse of a few points. In contrast to other authors, I should like to lay stress on the first analytical part, as I consider it to be fundamental. It develops money from life, the synthetical