Work · Sociology & Social Theory
The Metropolis and Mental Life
The metropolis breeds the blasé attitude: intellect as protection against an overload of stimuli.
Introduction
The text began as a lecture in the winter of 1902–03, part of a series organised by the Gehe Foundation in Dresden to accompany the first German city exhibition, and appeared in the foundation’s yearbook in 1903. Simmel argues that the money economy, punctuality and calculation train an intellectual, matter-of-fact attitude, while reserve protects people from the countless strangers they meet. At the same time the city grants the individual a freedom unknown in small towns – and creates pressure to stand out through eccentricity. In the 1920s the short essay became a key text for Robert E. Park and the Chicago School of urban sociology.
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