Georg Simmels social theory heuristics, or how contemporary society is possible

The article shows that the conception of a German sociologist GeorgSimmel appears as positive heuristics, allowing organic overcoming the epistemological crisis for the contemporary social theory. Thespecificity of the conception of G. Simmel is the synthesis of Kant's a priori method and philosophy of life, which is currently relevantfor the analysis of contemporary social processes. Improvement of social theory is associated with its interconnection with the philosophicalknowledge, which is the source of its renovation. The application to the classical social theory of Kant's method for social problemsanalysis allowed showing the narrowness of the positivist paradigm. Ethos of sociology as one of the cultural sciences becamefocused on the systematic universality of knowledge, where diverse practical assessments assimilate a priori schemes with social andhistorical nature. In contemporary social theory such an approach is extremely vulnerable when classical scientific criteria face the authenticdescriptions of the sphere of individual existence. Liberation and progressive enhancement of individual autonomy in a societyleads to the liberalization of the classical concepts of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. In the contemporary society, a new way ofVergesellschaftung is realized; whose interpretation according to contemporary social theorists should occur in terms of categoricalchanges in the relations of the individual and the society (A. Touraine, U. Beck, A. Giddens, N. Luhmann, etc.). This theoretical andmethodological situation of treatment of science for science has led to a situation of radical negation of the classical intellectual heritage.The authors of the article see a way out of this crisis in the treatment of the heritage of Georg Simmel, who was the first in socialtheory to mark the problem of Gemeinschaft as the root cause of the dissolution of individuality in society. Simmels approach goesbeyond the intelligible scheme in the interpretation of social reality and turns to an analysis of an individual life, its hermeneutical experience.Starting from the premises of Kant's transcendentalism, in conjunction with the psychological approach, G. Simmel marked anew level of the theory of social cognition. Basic social process is the Vergesellschaftung that represent society as coming into being.In his concept of Vergesellschaftung Simmel emphasizes the genetic relationship between the social and psychological, wherethe individual, on the one hand, is a product of the society, on the other, - an independent individual existence. Primary are individualactions that affect cognition forms of a more general nature - the state, the family, the division of labor, etc. This approach is opposed tothe essentialist interpretations of the society and is referred to as the ontology of social coming into being.

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