The Message of Interpretation. Humanities versus Natural Sciences ; The Operation Called Verstehen ; The Controversy about Pragmatism Simmel versus conventional Philosophy ; The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy ; Simmel's Critique of Subjectivist Pragmatism ; Tension between Culture and the Individual.
The Message of Change: Society Evolves Over Time. Evolution and Darwin's "Theory of Descendency" ; Change as Differentiation and Individualization ; Competition promotes Evolution ; Alternative Theories of Evolution.
The Message of Interaction: How Reality is Constructed. Sociology as the Study of Interaction ; Society Emerges in Interaction ; Religion as Interaction ; Strangeness as Form of Interaction ; Encounters between Alien Populations ; The Stranger as Innovator.
The Message of Alienation: Money and Politics. Money as a Paradigm of Cultural Processes ; Evaluation and Alienation ; Construction of Value in Interaction ; Money as a Means of Exchange ; Socialism as Result of a Forming Process ; Socialism on Happiness ; Machine - Factory - Government.
The Main Thrust of the Messages contra Marx and Weber. Simmel's Main Thrust against Marx ; Simmel's main Thrust against Weber.
Background of the Messages: Intellectual Influences. The Platonic Socrates ; Plato's Eternal Ideas ; Spinoza ; Kant ; Dilthey ; Summary: Statements about Simmel's Method.
