Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/75

 SIMM EL'S PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY 6 1

weighed ; only a man of Simmel's sharp intellect was able to see all the objections that could be raised. The reduction of men- tal to physical labor is investigated. The hypothesis of inheri- tance, the possibility of a relation between the standard of life, and the quality of the productions are discussed. It seems justifiable that a differentiated intellect should be fed on differ- entiated food; in this respect it is true that "man is what he eats."

This reduction of all work to muscular power seems plebeian and crude, but even here Simmel sees away out of the difficulty. Perhaps the value of muscular labor does not lie in the physical effort, but in the physical energy that enables us to take work upon us, so that all work may be reduced to a physical effort which a future generation may perhaps be able to measure. This interesting discussion is not quite final, however, for it can- not be denied that labor may be worthless, foolish, superfluous, so that an external moment i. e., utility is added as a deter- minating factor, and the quantity of labor in itself is not a suffi- cient basis of value. In supplement to Simmel one might call attention to the fact that a clock, one wheel of which is wanting, cannot stand in the same relation to the perfect clock as that in which the quantities of labor applied to both stand to each other. Thus we recognize that labor-money which, strange to say, even non-socialists x defend is to be rejected as lost equivalent, and our money, which certainly often violates personal values, is to be preferred, because its mere quantitative character allows the unity of value to be changed into multiplicity.

In the last chapter, "The Style of Life," 2 we breathe the mountain air of modern philosophy. Money and culture, the whole rhythm of modern life, the style inwhich the different ten- dencies of our time have become united as a whole ! The pro- longation of the succession of human purposes causes the cessa- tion of emotional impulsive actions, the world gradually becomes a problem that intellect has to cope with. The enhancement of

1 For instance, Schaffle.

2 Vide SOMBART,' Der moderns Kapitalismus, 1902, Vol. I, pp. 378 ff.; Vol. II, pp. 68 ff., passim.