Messages from Georg Simmel -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. The Message of Interpretation -- Humanities versus Natural Sciences -- The Operation Called Verstehen -- The Controversy about Pragmatism -- Simmel versus Conventional Philosophy -- The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy -- Simmel's Critique of Subjectivist Pragmatism -- Tension between Culture and the Individual -- 2. The Message of Change: Society Evolves Over Time -- Evolution and Darwin's "Theory of Descendency" -- Change as Differentiation and Individualization -- Competition promotes Evolution -- Alternative Theories of Evolution -- 3. The Message of Interaction: How Reality is Constructed -- Sociology as the Study of Interaction -- Society Emerges in Interaction -- Religion as Interaction -- Strangeness as Form of Interaction -- Encounters between Alien Populations -- The Stranger as Innovator -- 4. The Message of Alienation: Money and Politics -- Money as a Paradigm of Cultural Processes -- Evaluation and Alienation -- Construction of Value in Interaction -- Money as a Means of Exchange -- Socialism as Result of a Forming Process -- Socialism on Happiness -- Machine - Factory - Government -- 5. The Main Thrust of the Messages contra Marx and Weber -- Simmel's main Thrust against Marx -- Simmel's main Thrust against Weber -- 6. Background of the Messages: Intellectual Influences -- The Platonic Socrates -- Plato's Eternal Ideas -- Spinoza -- Kant -- Dilthey -- Summary: Statements about Simmel's Method -- Appendix 1: Biography of Georg Simmel -- Appendix 2: Simmel's Autobiographical Fragment -- References -- Index.