Abstract
In this paper I deal with the role of analogical reasoning in the thought of Georg Simmel (1858-1918), one of the founders of German sociology. My main goal here is to grasp the relations between analogy-making as a cognitive resource and the style of thought to which Simmel clings. As a first step towards this, I gather the fragments of the history of the concept of analogy that I consider to be the most relevant to Simmel's reception of it. After that, I put forward a synoptic survey of the instances of analogy that can be identified in those of his works deemed to be the most influential to sociology, viz., his Philosophie des Geldes (1900) and his Soziologie (1908). Finally, I face the question regarding how Simmel handled his analogies as he set out to articulate such intellectual undertakings - aiming to lay bare the connections between this resource and the cognitive ideal of plasticity, conceived as a pervasive guiding principle of Simmel's sociological and philosophical thought.
Keywords:
Georg Simmel (1858-1918); Analogy; German thought; History of sociology; Imagination