Aus dem Häuschen. Simmel und der homo clausus

This essay approaches the problem of identity through the figure of the homo clausus. Beginning with debates on personal identity and its contemporary fragility, it turns to the individual as the site where identity is articulated in cultural and social forms. Simmel’s sociology grounds individuality in reciprocal interaction, whereas his philosophy of culture tends to elevate a form of heroic inwardness. Ultimately, viewed through the lens of pure interaction – above all the play of sociability – the closed self appears less as an insulated entity than as one constituted through mutual attunement

Cultural identity · Personal identity · Reciprocal · Social identity theory · Social relation · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · German Social Sciences and History · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory