The social Theory of Georg Simmel

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1024612627

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-166627

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Spykman, Nicholas J. http://d-nb.info/gnd/124229867

Title:: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Place of publication:: Chicago

Publisher:: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: XXIX, 297 S

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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(1 METHOD AND TECHNIQUE OF FORMAL SOCIOLOGY 73 the character of the building-material. This has in and for itself a significance and value which are apart from all in- dividual or social life and which require a special investi- zation. This factualness of the social content is, of course, in relation to the full actuality, also a mere abstraction. The economic and political contents do not develop through their own logic alone, but through the totality of mental and historical forces. The social sciences in the usual sense of the term aim at the investigation of this factualness of the social con- tent. The social actuality cannot be grasped in its imme- diate totality. It can only be made intelligible when re- solved through abstractions into special fields of scientific investigation. There is therefore no science of society, but only a series of social sciences, just as there is no science of nature, but only a series of natural sciences.! The dependence of our thinking on two mutually sup- porting thought forms, already referred to in the Intro- duction, becomes again manifest in the special field of the social sciences. A complete understanding of the factual objectivity of social situations can be reached only by an application of both the historical method and the method aiming at general laws. It is to be understood both in its genetic aspect, as a phase in a historical development, and in its timeless aspect. The first is to be obtained by study- ing it as a development from the preceding situation. The latter is to be obtained by a comparison with all similar situations independent of time and place. The political or economic aspect of the present situa- tion can be understood only on the basis of a knowledge and understanding of the past. The past, however, is intel- ligible only through our experience of the present. An sconomiec occurrence can be explained only on the basis \ Grundfr. der Soz., pp. 24-26.

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