74 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
of a specific historical-psychical constellation. But this deduction
 is an explanation only if we assume definite fixed
correlations. We could never deduce a historical development
 if we did not assume above the individual case general
 relations, permanent tendencies, and regular correlations.
 Without these assumptions the totality would fall
to pieces into a series of atomic occurrences. But these
general laws which enable us to relate the situation or occurrence
 to the determining factors and conditions are in
themselves the product of historical combinations. Forces
and occurrences in the past have brought the things around
us into forms and relationships which now appear as of
general and superhistorical validity. It is because we consider
 them as of superhistorical validity that we are able
to view the historical appearances of later date as special
illustrations of general laws. Each method must therefore
search for a justification in the other at every point of its
application. Only through the reciprocal relation between
the two can we hope to obtain an understanding of the
objective actuality.!
A fundamental understanding of the economic or political
 aspect of a social situation would therefore require
a psychological, a sociological, and a factual understanding,
 the latter to be obtained by the alternative application
 of the historical and the general inductive method.
The aim of sociology is an understanding of the processes
 of socialization. In this case the second category of
cognition loses its methodological significance. The phenomena
 co-ordinated by means of this viewpoint have
now become the central problem. The other two categories
of cognition, however, maintain their methodological function.
 The process of socialization can still be regarded from
these two viewpoints. It may be viewed as the product of

L Phil. des Geldes, p. 79.