Simmel: Life as transcendence. AI

Deepseek

Summarize George Simmel, Lebensanshauung, 1918. Speak English [Deepseek has been arbitrarily answering me in Chinese.]

Of course. Here is a summary of Georg Simmel's Lebensanschauung (translated as The View of Life or Life as Transcendence), published in 1918, which represents his final and most mature philosophical statement.

Core Theme: "More-Life" and "More-than-Life" Simmel's central argument is that life is not a static substance but a dynamic, self-transcending process. He defines life by its inherent tendency to go beyond its own current form. This occurs in two fundamental ways:

"More-Life" (Mehr-Leben): Life constantly produces new biological, psychological, and social forms (e.g., a child growing, an institution evolving).

"More-than-Life" (Mehr-als-Leben): Life also creates objective, timeless structures—like art, religion, law, and philosophical truths—that outgrow and outlast the fleeting flow of lived experience. These forms acquire a logic and permanence of their own, which can later conflict with the vital, flowing life that created them.

Key Concepts from the Book

Life as Transcendence: For Simmel, to live is to constantly transcend oneself. This is not an occasional event but the very essence of life. Every moment, life is reaching beyond its present state.

The "Turn" or "Additional Element" (die Wendung zum Idee): This is a crucial concept. It is the moment when vital, immediate lived experience (Erleben) crystallizes into a stable, objective cultural form (e.g., a feeling becomes a law, an impression becomes a work of art). This "turn" is how life creates the "more-than-life."

The Tragedy of Culture: This earlier concept is deepened here. The cultural objects (the "more-than-life") created by human vitality inevitably become alienated from their source. They rigidify and can impose themselves back on life, stifling its creativity (e.g., bureaucratic rules, dogmatic beliefs).

Individuality and the "Law of the Unique Self": Simmel argues that each individual is not just a random collection of traits but a unique, coherent totality. We each have an internal, personal "law"—a formative principle that guides our development. True freedom is following this inner law, not arbitrary choice.

Death as a Meaning-Giving Structure: In a famous chapter, Simmel reinterprets death. Death is not merely a biological end external to life. It is a form that life itself takes. From the moment we are born, we are "dying beings," and this horizon of finitude shapes the contour and significance of all our experiences. Death gives life its urgency, unity, and narrative shape.

Religious Feeling as Connectedness (Verbundenheit): Simmel sees religion not primarily in dogma or institutions, but as a fundamental "attitude" or "form of life." It is the feeling of being connected to a higher, all-encompassing totality. This religious sensibility can be directed toward God, the universe, or the social whole.

Style & Significance

Method: The book is a masterpiece of philosophical impressionism. Simmel doesn't build a rigid deductive system but offers penetrating insights (aperçus) from multiple angles—sociology, metaphysics, aesthetics, psychology—to illuminate the central theme.

Legacy: Lebensanschauung is considered the culmination of Simmel's thought, moving beyond his formal sociology to a "metaphysics of life." It deeply influenced later thinkers, particularly the founders of existential philosophy (like Martin Heidegger) and theological anthropology, due to its focus on being-toward-death, individuality, and the conflict between life and its created forms.

In a Nutshell:

Simmel's Lebensanschauung presents life as a ceaseless, creative, and self-overflowing process. It generates both its own ongoing flow ("more-life") and enduring cultural objects ("more-than-life"), which inevitably lead to tension. The book explores how this dynamic shapes individuality, culture, our confrontation with death, and our sense of the sacred, defining human existence as fundamentally self-transcendence.