The War of Universals: Positioning Simmel in the Sociological Reflection on Obligation
The article examines the various instances at which Simmel’s work confronts the necessity to reformulate the liberal conception of obligation. If — as the emergence of social rights suggests — responsibility for action is no longer imputable to individuals alone and if the rationality of the law is not determinable through positive law or the abstractions of natural law, a sociological revision of the modern conception of freedom is indispensable. Beyond the naturalist, positivist, and historicist framework of the 19th century, this revision must necessarily include a critical analysis of the close link that the Moderns posited between universalism and legal-economic formalism. In this perspective, Simmel’s thought at once represents an acceptance of the historical dimension of this phenomenon, but also seeks to transcend it through an ethico-political reflection that allows for the emergence of a new type of universalism, which is immanent in modern formalism.