Simmel has sometimes been criticized for having more thoughts than a coherent foundational idea of an original philosophy, as seen in his essays that were also published in the feuilleton sections of major daily newspapers. However, as we have seen, the various pieces of his philosophy of life grow from a unified principle. Additionally, there is another principle, lying at a more elemental level of his thinking, from which he approached things, although he himself never fully articulated it in general terms. This principle could be succinctly described as "dialectic without reconciliation." Simmel thinks—not from a metaphysical unity that unfolds into the individual secondarily and continues to support and hold it together—but he takes the "pluralistic universe" seriously. At the beginning stands the individual, and higher wholes come about—Leibnizian—only through the relationships of individuals to one another. The categories of early Simmel, such as "relativity" in the realm of knowledge and "interaction" in the social sphere, have their origins here.

The following works by Georg Simmel are already available from Suhrkamp Verlag: Writings on Sociology. A Selection. Edited and introduced by Heinz-Jürgen Dahme and Otthein Rammstedt; Writings on the Philosophy and Sociology of Gender. Edited and introduced by Heinz-Jürgen Dahme and Klaus Christian Köhnke. About Simmel: Georg Simmel and Modernity. New Interpretations and Materials. Edited by Heinz-Jürgen Dahme and Otthein Rammstedt.

In preparation: a collected works edition of about twenty volumes, with the first volumes set to be published in the fall of 1988.