The Maker of Lies: Simmel, Mendacity and the Economy of Faith

Abstract

Georg Simmel’s treatment of the lie – in the essay ‘The Sociology of Secrecy and Secret Societies’, but in other, lesser known texts as well – is an aspect of his thought that has not received a great deal of attention among theorists. And yet many of his better known contributions to social theory – including his concepts of ‘interaction’ and ‘sociation’, his appreciation of the spatial and the aesthetic dimensions of social life, and his speculations about culture and subjectivity in the modern world – draw on ideas that he developed while contemplating the problem of deception. In this article, I bring Simmel’s work on mendacity to the fore, and show how a consideration of it sheds new light on some of his most familiar claims. I further argue that Simmel’s work on the lie illuminates a very old and vexing set of philosophical debates, and especially the debate over self-deception, or whether or not it is possible to lie to oneself. Along with providing a close study of his comments on the lie in ‘The Sociology of Secrecy and Secret Societies’, and in the chapter of his monumental Sociology that is based on that essay, I propose a reading of Simmel’s heretofore ignored fable or fairytale ‘Der Lügenmacher’ – one of the eight short pieces that he published pseudonymously between 1899 and 1903 in the cultural journal Der Jugend under the heading ‘ Momentbilder’ or ‘Snapshots, sub specie aeternitatis’.

The Transformation of Love? Choice, Emotional Rationality and Wedding Gifts

“…We suggest a reconciliation to this dialectic of autonomy and recognition in Simmel's inversion of Kantian ethics, 'The Law of the Individual' (e.g. Nielsen, 2002: 89;Lee and Silver, 2012;Barbour, 2012).…”

Strangers in the Field

“…First, trust, intimacy and truth-telling are more likely to be present among parties who know one another, whereas strangers are often a prime target for deception. Equally important, the “possibility of faithlessness, mendacity or deceit” (Barbour, 2012: 221) in interactions with strangers varies in predictable ways at the aggregate level. In some societies, people are more willing to exchange personal information with strangers.…”

“…Following Simmel (1906), a number of scholars have portrayed attitudes toward secrecy as key markers of interactional culture that change alongside sociocultural modernization (Hazelrigg, 1969; Marx and Muschert, 2008; Barbour, 2012). A broadening conception of privacy changes the range of people one can legitimately choose to share private information with, or conceal that information from.…”

“… 4. The differences between “lying,” “falsehood” and “error” revolve, in large part, around the speaker’s intentions (Simmel, 1906; Barbour, 2012). Since we have no information on those intentions, we use the generic term “white lie,” by which we refer to a trivial lie or fib. …”

Weltanschauung of the Indonesian Law: A Study on the Development of the Weltanschauung in the Indonesian Law (1945-2000)

“…Meanwhile, lebensanchauung was introduced by a German philosopher, Georg Simmel, at the start of the 20 th century. This term emphasized the holistic perspective of life, which encompasses aspects such as value, ethics, and one's perspective of existence (Barbour, 2012). These two terms were then combined into weltanschauung, which is more commonly used and more popular (Coyne, 2018).…”