The Philosophy of Money

'I have lost interest ... in all that I have written prior to The Philosophy of Money. This one is really my book, the others appear to me colourless and seem as if they could have been written by anyone else.' - Georg Simmel to Heinrich Rickert (1904) 'We shouldall be grateful for this translation. It must have been extremely hard work, but it shows no trace of it. Indeed, it positively sparkles.' - Alan Ryan, The Guardian In The Philosophy of Money, Simmel provides us with a remarkably wide-ranging discussion of the social, psychological and philosophical aspects of the money economy, full of brilliant insights into the forms that social relationships take. He analyzes the relationships of money to exchange, the human personality, the position of women, individual freedom and many other areas of human existence. Later he provides us with an account of the consequences of the modern money economy and the division of labor, which examines the processes of alienation and reification inwork, urban life and elsewhere. Perhaps, more than any of his other sociological works, The Philosophy of Money gives us an example of his comprehensive analysis of the interrelationships between the most diverse and seemingly connected social phenomena. This revised edition of the translation by Tom Bottomore and David Frisby, includes a new Preface by David Frisby.

Georg Simmel (1858-1918) taught sociology and philosophy at the University of Berlin for the greater part of his life. In 1914 he was appointed to a chair at Strasbourg University, where he remained until his death.