Life and its cultural forms are fundamentally in tension

Evidence

The whole history of culture is the working out of this contradiction. We speak of culture whenever life produces certain forms in which it expresses and realizes itself; works of art, religions, sciences, technologies, laws, and innumerable others. These forms encompass the flow of life and provide it with content and form, freedom and order. But although these forms arise out of the life process, because of their unique constellation they do not share the restless rhythm of life, its ascent and descent, its constant renewal, its incessant divisions and reunifications. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 837

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Simmel’s central concept of culture as forms born of life that then oppose life’s restlessness.
• XREF: connects to: Life as a whole can be perceived as an adventure from a higher standpoint — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 473; Life’s self-transcendence makes time real, unlike analytical separation of tenses — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 809; The tension between life and form drives cultural change. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 820 (+12 more)

Related

• The tension between life and form drives cultural change. (similarity 0.90)
• Cultural forms ossify and drift apart from the life that created them (similarity 0.88)
• Objectified cultural forms always lag behind the life that created them (similarity 0.87)
• Each cultural form is inevitably replaced by its successor (similarity 0.86)
• Form-versus-life conflict anticipates modern structure-versus-antistructure debates (similarity 0.85)
• Cultures represent themselves as fixed but are always changed by history (similarity 0.84)
• Conceptualization inevitably imposes form on formless life (similarity 0.83)
• Human culture originates in the socially mediated relation between man and nature (similarity 0.82)
• Culture as constitutive of practice retains contingency and is never finally determined (similarity 0.82)
• Simmel saw cultural evolution producing diverse incommensurable worlds, not unified humanity (similarity 0.82)
• Culture names the forms, not the content, of social relationships (similarity 0.81)
• Cultures do not die but become undead, persisting as mere lifestyle options (similarity 0.80)
• Culture operates as signifying practice rather than a fixed way of life (similarity 0.80)
• Culture is a constant battlefield with no permanent victories (similarity 0.80)
• Music led culture by giving the new palpable form, a capacity now lost (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Encountering another culture can dissolve one’s own sense of meaning #expands (0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 14
• Social relations crystallize into fixed external forms that cannot keep pace with inner life #exemplifies (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 778
• Popular culture is defined by its tension with dominant culture #exemplifies (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1011
• Objectified cultural forms always lag behind the life that created them #exemplifies (0.55) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 83