Opposed behaviors like miserliness and prodigality share a single root impulse
Evidence
This formal identity of the two types despite the diametrical opposition of their visible behaviors—and the lack of a regulating substantive aim which suggests a capricious interplay between the two equally senseless tendencies—explain why miserliness and prodigality are often found in the same person, sometimes in different areas of interest and sometimes in connection with different moods. Constricting or expansive moods are expressed in miserliness or prodigality, as though the impulse were the same and merely the valence differed. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 462
Categorization
- XREF: Mood-dependent valence switching parallels the way Julius shifts between observation and engagement in different urban settings. — connects to: Opposites like good and evil are relative contrasts within an absolute whole — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 915; Both tolerating and opposing coercion serve the same psychic function — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 769; The same observable behavior can stem from opposite motivations — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 128
Related
Broader Connections
- Opposites like good and evil are relative contrasts within an absolute whole
#expands(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 915