Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Georg SimmelRead
Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Secrecy represents a state of uncertainty between existence and non-existence.
In this quote, Georg Simmel suggests that secrecy serves as an intermediary phase where information or truths are in a liminal state. This implies that secrets have the power to keep something in a suspended reality, affecting relationships and perceptions, creating a space where reality isn't fully confirmed or denied.
Themes
SecrecyTruthExistencePhilosophyRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about the nature of truth and secrecy.
More from Georg Simmel
All quotes βMusic and love are the only accomplishments of humanity which do not, in an absolute sense, have to be called attempts with unsuitable means.
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Discretion is nothing other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the intimate contents of life.
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In the immediate as well as the symbolic sense, in the physical as well as the intellectual sense, we are at any moment those who separate the connected, or connect the separate.
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For the division of labor demands from the individual an ever more one-sided accomplishment, and the greatest advance in a one-sided pursuit only too frequently means dearth to the personality of the individual.
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By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.
Georg SimmelRead
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