2 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL

plies that no single one of them by itself alone can lead to
a fundamental understanding of this social actuality. Any
one science resulting from these viewpoints cannot, in and
for itself, explain society. When the object is to understand
 the social actuality, the three viewpoints are mutually
 supporting and complementary to one another. They
are not self-sufficient. A fundamental understanding of
the actuality requires the application of all three modes of
approach.
The first category of cognition regards the social content
 as the product of processes in the individual consciousness
 of the elements. It aims at a psychological explanation
 of that content. In case of an economic content, it
would search for the impulses, desires, aims, and purposes
which lead men to economic activity.
The second viewpoint regards society with reference to
the interrelations and interactions between individuals.
It views the social content as the product of the socialized
group of individuals. It leads to an investigation of the social
 products apart from the individual contributions and
the objective factual significance. This mode of approach
might be called the sociological method.
The third category of cognition regards the social content,
 not as a product of individual contributions nor as a
product of the socialized group, but with reference to its
objective factual aspect.
All social activity which manifests itself in certain material
 must adapt itself to the laws and inherent characteristics
 of that material. The forms of political organization
 and economic production, the law, the arts, and language
 have laws and a logical development of their own.
It is through these inherent characteristics that they bind
the social forces within certain limits and guide them in
certain directions. Society, like the architect, is limited by