Istantanee simmeliane. La vita sub specie relationis

In these pages we aim to take some ‘snapshots’ of Georg Simmel's thought regarding a phenomenon of fundamental importance in his work: the relationship. Even before what appears on the surface of social life, relationship concerns a very deep level where it happens according to a particular modality capable of safeguarding otherness. In fact, the topic ‘relationship’ in Simmel implies considering what is the condition of the relationship itself, that is, life, on which the first snapshot focuses. The second one focuses on an aspect of human existence outlined by the Berlin thinker as 'vital-spiritual existence': relationship between organic matter and awareness, interiority, culture. The last snapshot concerns the individual that Simmel outlines as a 'whole man', constitutively relational in his identity and individuality.