Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

GEORG SIMMEL ON ENVY 115
diminished or relatively contained in a society having a maximum or a
minimum of points of social contact.
Georg Simmel on envy
In Chapter 4 of his Sociology, which is concerned with conflict, Georg
Simmel investigates the phenomenon of envy, which he sees as
contained within the concepts of hatred, jealousy and ill-will. Like so
many authors, Simmel is immediately confronted by terminological
ambiguity:
Finally, there is a fact, apparently of merely individual importance, yet in
reality very significant sociologically, which may link extreme violence of
antagonistic excitement, to close proximity: jealousy. Popular usage is not
unequivocal in regard to this term, often failing to distinguish it from envy.
As we have already seen, Simmel here underrates the precision of the
German language (as also of English and French). The big dictionaries,
already available in his day, could have given him a clue. Simmel
continues:
Both affects are undoubtedly of the greatest importance in the formation
of human relations. In both, an asset is involved whose attainment or
preservation is impeded by a third party, either truly or symbolically. Where
attainment is concerned, we should speak of envy, and where preservation,
rather of jealousy; in this the semantic differentiation of the words is in
itself, of course, quite meaningless and of importance only for the distinction
of the psycho-sociological processes.
Here I would not agree with Simmel unconditionally: the use of the
words is not incidental, as we have already shown in Chapter 2. Proverbial
lore, as well as the literature of different cultures, has, over the
course of centuries, ranged so much precise knowledge under the distinct
concepts 'jealousy' and 'envy' that we should retain the existing
terminology. On the whole Simmel, too, adheres to tradition:
It is peculiar to the man described as jealous that the subject believes he
has a rightful claim to possession, whereas envy is concerned not with the