The central figure in this article is a German sociolo-gist, philosopher, one of the main representatives of the late “philoso-phy of life”, as well as a classic of Western sociology and philosophy at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. G. Simmel and his views are still being applied today. It is worth noting the breadth of interests that G. Simmel had. Thus, starting with works devoted to social and psy-chological studies of individuals, communications, and ending with the philosophy of fashion, where fashion was described in great detail as a process that closely interacts with urbanization, culture, history, power, and the psychology of the individual himself. The emergence of sociolo-gy in the middle of the 19th century and its attempt to establish itself as an independent scientific discipline turned out to be associated with the ideas of the so–called first positivism – with “social philosophy” by O. Comte, G. Spencer. It is emphasized in particular that the formation of sociology as a positive science was strongly promoted by the scien-tific pathos of positivism, its rationalistic aspirations, and relatively progressive social principles for its time. At the same time, sociologists, philosophers, representatives of the Baden school of neo–Kantianism and such classics of foreign sociology as M. Weber and G. Simmel were of significant importance in the development of anti-positivist thoughts. Another characteristic feature of foreign sociology at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was an extreme increase in interest in Marxism (mainly in its neo–Kantian interpretation). It should be recog-nized that influence of Marxist ideas appeared in the works of G. Simmel.
G. Simmel; foreign sociology; positivist sociology; Marxism; neo-Marxism; culture; Frankfurt school.