66 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL

tive in palm trees build these palm trees into characteristic
forms which are different from those of other trees, yet
one does not speak of the specific laws of palm growth.
Historical material develops into specific forms in a similar
fashion, but there are no specific laws of historical growth.
There is not a second law of a higher order above the
laws of the first order which regulate the movements of the
primary elements. The only realities in the development
of a historical complex are the movements of the primary
elements and the laws that regulate these movements. If
the sum of these movements is viewed as a synthetic unity,
we cannot claim a new law for that unity as an independent
complex, because every composing movement is already
determined by and related to its cause.!
Historical laws, therefore, are related to the actually
effective laws as philosophic knowledge is related to exact
knowledge. They are formulations for occurrences and relationships
 which resemble philosophic speculations, and,
like the latter, they may be regarded either as forerunners
of exact knowledge, as preliminary formulations, or as satisfactory
 projections of the actuality on a distinct and different
 plane. Viewed as the precursors of exact knowledge,
they have a value only in relation to exact science. Viewed
as satisfactory projections of the actuality, they have a value
 in and for themselves independent of any correspondence
 to objective reality.
Considered as anticipations of the exact knowledge of
the historical occurrence, the historical laws are but the
first steps. We are forced to stop first at certain regularities
on the surface of historical life until the laws which describe
the actual relations between the smallest elements are
known. Without further investigation these regularities
are formulated in abstract rules which in a sense explain
1 Probl. der Gesch., pp. 77-85.