Peníze v moderní kultuře a jiné eseje – Simmel Georg (2026)

This Czech-language collection of essays presents reflections by the German philosopher, sociologist and cultural theorist Georg Simmel (1858–1918) on fashion, the stranger, hostility, shame, discretion, the role of money and conflict in modern culture. Through an unusual perspective on the phenomena of everyday life, the essays offer a distinctive portrait of modern society. Simmel remains interesting and relevant as a penetrating and individual analyst and critic of modernity, whose understanding of the modern era reaches far beyond the framework of the late nineteenth century. His view of contemporary society is based on an analysis of the mentality of the metropolitan individual, marked by neuroticism arising as a response to the constantly changing stimuli that cannot be managed in traditional ways. This gives rise to the modern person’s blasé attitude and indifference, a form of self-defence against these influences, expressed through retreat into consumption, especially fashion and lifestyle creation, and the aestheticisation of life. Underlying all this is money as a model of social interaction, a symbol, a means of simplifying market relations, a constant measure of value, and a mobilisation and condensation of values.