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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14 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL speculation on principle in certain cases, but one cannot do this on the basis of standards which decide for em- pirical, scientific knowledge about validity and signifi- cance. These standards do not apply to metaphysics because its problems and aims are different. It creates a world-picture according to its own laws, with its own methods, and by its own technique. But apart from the value and significance which phil- osophic thought possesses in and for itself, as a special function, as a special attitude toward the world, it has a meaning and significance as a forerunner of exact science. Philosophy was the mother of all sciences, and only gradually have they obtained their independence. As the forerunner of science, it takes in a tentative grasp what is as yet unprovable and combines in inclusive concepts what is as yet unobservable as single facts. With these it draws pictures of the world which will be partially confirmed, partially refuted by methodological empiricism, but which are none the less the first approaches to knowledge. Scientific thought begins with wide concepts and gen- eral reflections. It becomes more narrow in proportion as it becomes more exact. With a few ideas it will try to grasp the totality of existence, and only after innumerable trials and errors in the highest abstractions does it begin with analysis of complex concepts. It then follows the sin- gle threads of the weaving, which it formerly thought to understand without knowledge of its structure. The form of some occurrence which has often been observed on the surface of appearances is postulated as a general law until the incidental character of the coexist- ence of its composing factors is discovered. Then the forms of the latter are postulated as the real general laws until the process repeats itself. From a tracing of the { Probl. der Gesch., pp. 92-93.

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