METHOD AND TECHNIQUE OF FORMAL SOCIOLOGY 477
formal relations within the group resulting from general
dislocations occurring in the contacts of human beings.
The difficulty involved in the abstraction may be seen
from the following illustration. Toward the end of the
Middle Ages certain guild masters were forced through
an extension of their trade relations to new means of obtaining
 material and new ways of attracting customers
which were inconsistent with the older guild principles.
The ancient tradition that all masters should have a similar
business organization was no longer followed, and they
sought to place themselves outside of the narrow unity.
With regard to the purely sociological form abstracted
from the special content, this signifies that an expansion
of the circle with which the individual is connected goes
hand in hand with a more pronounced expression of individual
 peculiarity and a greater personal freedom. There
is, however, no absolutely effective method for wringing
this sociological meaning from the complex phenomena.
The questions asked are: What purely sociological configurations
 are contained in the historical occurrence? What
special interactions between individuals are involved, abstracted
 from the interests and impulses and from the
factual conditions? Not only are these questions answerable
 in various ways in a given case, but the historical facts
within which the actual sociological form is realized must
be cited in their factual totality. There is no definite guide
for the decomposition of the actuality into form and substance.
 Until the technique of this decomposition can be
formulated in precise concepts, a certain amount of intuitive
 procedure will therefore be inevitable.
It would seem that therein lies the fundamental difficulty.
 This difficulty is, however, not insurmountable.
The natural sciences did not start with a perfect technique,

L Soz., pp. 13-16.