Georg Simmel: View of life

Yesterday, we held our first 2016 POBICS seminary. As we announced in our webpage, in this case we talk about the last book of Georg Simmel, "View of Life: Four Metaphysical Essays". We offer now some keypoints about our meetings:

-Currently, life runaways to past and to future, that is, the break or the overflow of the limits. And that is what is called "trascendence". 

-There are also two importan concepts. Life is alwaws "more life" and "more than life":

Is more life not for quantity, but life is the movement in whatever absolute measure. Life produce things meanwhile it exists, and those things are alive. And that is because physiological self-preservation is a new continuous production.

But life is also "more than life" because our representations and knowledge, values and judgments, and objective understanding, are beyond the creative life. Life is more life that that life which fits in the form. Life leaves from herself. Life is more than the life that at any moment is assigned.

-On the other hand, there is a key difference between Simmel and Oriental Philosophy: In the second one, life consists in enjoy the limits and stay in the present. In Simmel, life is the contrary: Overflow the limits, even though both Simmel and Oriental Philosophy uses similar concepts (flow, moving...).

-What is in life? Worlds or realms with meaning (art, science, religion...). All those worlds are historical and and they are differentiated from each other.

-Another important concept is the continuity and quality/quantity idea. Simmel wants to break de binomial with de "quantum" concept.

-Finally, Simmel is related in some aspects with the pragmatism/radical empirism idea: Reality is in the whole we perceive (James). We don't need to see the whole relationship between two objects in order to understand that relationship. And that is because to do that, is a scientifical task. Empirics is open, and each one has its own.

Photo Credit: Huffington Post