On our Doorstep. Simmel, Weber and the Making of Reality

This essay will explore the possibility of a metamorphosis destabilizing the certainties of modern societies and the preconditions of its thinkability with the aid of two fathers of sociology, Georg Simmel and Max Weber. Both authors share the same view of culture as an instituting act, creating an island of meaningfulness within the perpetual flux of the Becoming of the world. Only a constant exchange between the inside and the outside can grant this «finite section» the semblance of stability humankind needs to feel at home, so we will turn to Simmel’s Wechselwirkung – reciprocal action – to help us better understand this enigmatic to-and-fro: we will highlight its strong connections with Goethe’s Anschauung and with the most recent discoveries of quantum mechanics and then take into account the lack in Western thought – with a few significant exceptions – of any sensibility to the idea of process, briefly exploring the imaginal drive to the quest for a fondamentum inconcussum. A dynamic perspective on reality undermines this very need for stability at all costs, as will be shown by going back to Weber and extending his definition of culture to include the “new” role of reality caretaker that is its necessary consequence and complement. Taking stock of new discoveries issuing from anthropology and philosophy, we will finally consider the possibility that it mainly comes down to processes that, as Beck wrote, «are unintended [and] generally go unnoticed». The stuff of reality might be far more entangled and subtle than we guessed so far.