Summary: Publisher Summary 1 Originally published in 1918, The View of Life is Georg Simmel's final work. Famously deemed "the brightest man in Europe" by George Santayana, Simmel addressed a variety of topics across his essayistic writings, which have influenced scholars in aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, and sociology. Nevertheless, a set of core issues emerged over the course of his career, most centrally the genesis, structure, and transcendence of social and cultural forms and the nature and genesis of authentic individuality. Composed in the years before his death, The View of Life was, according to Simmel, his "testament," a capstone work of profound metaphysical inquiry intended to formulate his conception of life in its entirety. Now Anglophone readers can at last read in full the work that shaped the argument of Heidegger's Being and Time and whose extraordinary impact on European intellectual life between the wars was extolled by Jurgen Habermas. Presented alongside these seminal essays are aphoristic fragments from Simmel's last journal, providing a beguiling look into the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers. John A.Y. Andrews is an information systems consultant for the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. Donald N. Levine is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Chicago and the editor of Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms and the author of Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America.   Publisher Summary 2 Published in 1918, The View of Lifeis Georg Simmel's final work. Famously deemed 鈥渢he brightest man in Europe鈥?by George Santayana, Simmel addressed a variety of topics across his essayistic writings, which have influenced scholars in aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, and sociology. Nevertheless, a set of core issues emerged over the course of his career, most centrally the genesis, structure, and transcendence of social and cultural forms and the nature and genesis of authentic individuality. Composed in the years before his death, The View of Lifewas, according to Simmel, his 鈥渢estament,鈥?a capstone work of profound metaphysical inquiry intended to formulate his conception of life in its entirety. Now Anglophone readers can at last read in full the work that shaped the argument of Heidegger's Being and Timeand whose extraordinary impact on European intellectual life between the wars was extolled by J眉rgen Habermas. Presented alongside these seminal essays are aphoristic fragments from Simmel's last journal, providing a beguiling look into the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers.