Geist als Speichermedium. Georg Simmels Ansatz zu einer Theorie materialer Kultur

Abstract

In this paper, I want to make it clear that a theory of the objective spirit, as developed between Hegel and Simmel, continues to represent an attractive theoretical proposition. However, it will be necessary to modify this theoretical offer, and this means above all retaining the opaque talk of the “objective spirit” with its idealistic connotations in order to keep the big puzzle questions (relation of subject-object, mind-matter, time-duration-change, etc.) open, while at the same time incorporating newer perspectives from cultural studies as an enrichment of social and materialistic aspects – institutions, practices, media, storage of immaterial information, etc. Simmel has featured prominently and extensively in this paper because, in my view, he saw the need to expand our philosophical thinking into the dimensions of the social, political, economic and technical. His philosophical theory of cultural objects opens up questions about their materiality, mediality and social dimension of use.

Keywords:

• Objective Spirit,
• Material Culture,
• Cultural Memory,
• Document Theory,
• Mediality