Societal value formation and the value of life

This article explores the formation of values on individual, cultural, societal, civilizational and epochal levels and discusses the carriers of values, symbolic hierarchies and future prospects. It demonstrates the continued conceptual and time-diagnostic usefulness of Georg Simmel’s sociological approach to values and argues that his Lebensphilosophie (‘philosophy of life’) offers a platform for dealing with modernity’s contingencies and ambiguities by treating life as such as the ultimate but indeterminate value that must be worked out by individuals. Values are needed as a preliminary means of orientation, even if these need not be considered to be of lasting duration.