Dual Economies: Towards an Asymmetrical Reading of Georg Simmel's The Philosophy of Money

Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money is separated into two parts, the first part being deemed “analytic” and the second being called “synthetic.” The book is a philosophical inquiry into the nature, origin, and historical/psychological effects of the money economy. Taking this economy (or money) as its object, Simmel’s inquiry ends up with two dyssynchronous conceptions of the money economy. These conceptions closely follow the opposing “economistic” and “non-economistic” concepts of political economy, which have been identified by Maurizio Lazzarato in his works on debt. In this thesis I argue that the analytic part of The Philosophy of Money shares the same conceptual elements of economy as the economistic concept, while the synthetic part shares the same elements as the non-economistic concept. These differing concepts of the money economy result from the fact that Simmel is employing two different philosophical methods, both found within a Neo-Kantian framework. Wilhelm Windelband elaborated this framework in his essay “Critical or Genetic Method?”, and the analytic part of Simmel’s book can be understood as employing the critical method, while the synthetic part can be understood as using the genetic method. This thesis ultimately addresses the problem of this asymmetry, and whether it can/should be escaped.Bachelor of Art