Simmel Between Pragmatism and Somaesthetics

This article analyzes the complex relationship between Georg Simmel’s philosophy and the philosophies of pragmatism and somaesthetics. Although his early theory of truth as grounded in utility was immediately recognized as essentially pragmatist in character, Simmel rejected the connection and sharply criticized pragmatist thought, while affirming a form of idealism against pragmatism’s more thorough naturalism. After analyzing other connections between Simmel’s thought and key pragmatist ideas (including that of meliorist self-cultivation), the essay compares Simmel’s analysis of the senses to the theories of somaesthetics. Simmel’s views on the senses, though insightful, are shown to be too limited in their scope and elitist in character, whereas somaesthetics offers a broader, more democratic view of the senses and embodiment and their role in melioristic self-cultivation.