The Philosophy of the ‘As If’ — The Role of ‘Fictions’ in Science and Social Life

Abstract

The ‘As if’ in Simmel’s sociology and methodology is a term for assumptions known to be untrue or impossible and yet acted upon in daily life or used in theorising as useful, heuristic ‘fictions’, as if they were true or possible. We saw in Chapter 6 how Simmel’s use of the duality of absolute and relative makes recourse to the ‘as if’ device (not always labelled as such) and this plays a part in his ‘relationism’, in which fictionalism is nonetheless not at odds with strong conceptions of the ‘truth’. We also saw how Simmel utilised the ‘as if’ device when writing about ‘feminine culture’. The presence of fictions elsewhere in his sociology is seen in his use in the sociology of the stage actor of the dictum that ‘society can be viewed as if it were a work of art’. The wider presence of the ‘as if’ in social life itself is also a focus of the chapter. In Chapter 4 we saw that only by assuming a ‘juridico-social fiction does the practice of care for the poor seem to be placed beyond arbitrariness’.

Being sociable is the game in which we act as if all were equal and at the same time as if each one were especially honoured.’

(Simmel, 1905)