Research Paper on:
The Philosophy of Money by Georg Simmel

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
paper properly! The name Georg Simmel may be largely unknown to anyone except for serious students of philosophy and sociology, and yet his insightful book, The Philosophy of Money,  has as much relevance today, as it did when it was first published in 1900. While Adam Smith considered what money represented for a market economy, Simmel examined what  money represents to man and society. As his epic commentary revealed, money is not simply an economic term, but has become the essence of contemporary world societies. Simmel  maintained that rationalizations and conclusions about any society or culture could only be made if there was a thorough understanding of money and what it truly means. Money, in  Simmels view, served a far greater social function than merely fueling the capitalist machine of supply and demand. Simmel was a German philosopher, as were Karl Marx and  Max Weber, but he was more closely associated with Weber than with Marx. In fact, Simmel seriously disputed Marxs labor theory, and believed that money had a considerably more  psychological than economic connotation. It was, he maintained, about human desire. Money is, quite simply, the means to a desirable end, which is something that an individual cannot  acquire otherwise. While people must join the labor force in order to accumulate money, Simmel was of the opinion that they did so because this enabled them increased liberties,  not oppression. The more money they earned, the greater their purchasing capacity. Money, in and of itself, means nothing if it remains static; but when it is freely  spent, the possibilities are unlimited. Simmel is, admittedly, one of the most complex of philosophers, and with this in mind, The Philosophy of Money is broken down into