32 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
the individual obtains in the mental picture of the other 
that quality and form which make the social relation pos- 
sible. They permit the beginning of the socialization. 
Owing to these tendencies toward social generalization, 
it becomes impossible within a differentiated society to 
discover the true individuality. They interfere with the 
ideal cognition of the actual individual, but they are the 
conditions which make social relations possible. In this 
they bear a resemblance to the Kantian categories, which 
reshape and transform the immediate data of experience, 
but none the less make the given world intelligible.! 
Another presupposition which determines the way in 
which individuals view one another might be formulated as 
the apparently trivial theorem that each element of a group 
is not only part of the group, but, besides that, something 
else. This fact becomes operative as a social a priori in 
this form, that it gives to that part of the individual which 
does not enter into the social relation a positive signifi- 
cance for that relation. There are certain types whose so- 
ciological significance, even in their germ and nature, is 
determined by the fact that they are in some way shut out 
from the group for which their existence is significant. 
Instances of this are the case of the stranger, the enemy, 
the criminal, and even the pauper. But this form applies, 
not merely to the case of such general characters, but, in 
numerous modifications, to every individual existence. The 
whole relation between individuals would be different if 
sach confronted the other only with that part of himself 
which is taken up by the interrelation. The officer is more 
than just an officer, the civilian more than just a civilian, 
and that other non-social part of the personality inter- 
penetrates the picture we form of him as an officer or ci- 
vilian. 
1 Soz., DD. 81-35.