Abstract

It seems evident that only »civil« culture is able to release the promethean powers of mankind. This process, going on for 200 years, is closely related to money as a socio-cultural device. Simmel is the first theoretician who revealed the indissoluble relationship between money and modern culture. In contrast, economics abstracts from culture in order to comply with the norms of »natural« sciences, therefore failing to integrate the essential category of economics – money – in its theory. Simmel's approach could be a rescue device to economic sciences caught up in their naturalistic web