Any social group can act as individual or aggregate depending on its relational frame.
Evidence
It is always precisely the intermediate structure that exhibits the pattern in question—internal cohesion, external repulsion—when contrasted with a more general higher structure and a more individual lower structure. The latter is a relative individual in relation to the former, regardless of whether in relation to still others it is a collective structure. Thus, wherever one seeks, as we do here, the normal correlation between three levels that are distinguished by their magnitudes—between the primarily individual element, and the narrower and the wider circle—there one will find that under different circumstances one and the same complex can play all three roles, depending on the relationships into which it enters. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 631
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes the formal, level-relative definition of ‘individual’ vs ‘collective’ that the whole chapter’s correlation rests on.
- XREF: connects to: A set of individuals can be society to varying degrees. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 51; Social forms can be classified by the interpersonal distances they create — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 81; Sociology’s proper object is the forms relating two or more individuals — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 154 (+2 more)
Related
- Sociology’s proper object is the forms relating two or more individuals (similarity 0.92)
- Social relations can be analyzed purely as formal configurations (similarity 0.86)
- Social groups are ternary, not binary, relations among third parties. (similarity 0.84)
- A set of individuals can be society to varying degrees. (similarity 0.84)
- A science of society must study only forms of interaction (similarity 0.84)
- Society names both actual human networks and the abstract forms of sociality (similarity 0.83)
- Human essence is the ensemble of social relations, not an individual abstraction (similarity 0.82)
- Sociology studies men only insofar as interaction forms and determines them as groups. (similarity 0.82)
- Identical interaction forms recur across radically different social groups (similarity 0.81)
- The individual’s inner mental relations mirror social relations among persons (similarity 0.81)
- Sociology studies abstract forms of interaction as geometry studies spatial forms (similarity 0.81)
- Numbers name the intermediate agent between individual and society that neither alone can enact (similarity 0.81)
- Societies require a mix of discord and harmony to take determinate shape (similarity 0.81)
- Sociology relates to social sciences as geometry relates to physics. (similarity 0.81)
- Individual and society are methodological standpoints, not separable entities (similarity 0.81)
Broader Connections
- A set of individuals can be society to varying degrees.
#expands(0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 51 - Social forms can be classified by the interpersonal distances they create
#expands(0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 81 - Sociology’s proper object is the forms relating two or more individuals
#corroborates(0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 154