INTRODUCTION 
"N THE preceding chapters we have dealt with 
Simmel’s fundamental considerations regarding the 
-+ methodology of the social sciences in general and of 
sociology in particular. Our next task is, therefore, to 
indicate to what his conception of formal sociology and of 
its method and technique leads in actual application. 
The subject-matter of sociology, as will be remembered 
from the preceding chapters, is for Simmel the process of 
socialization as such. Sociology is the science of human 
relationships, the theory of association. Its task is to de- 
scribe and explain the forms of socialization and to trace 
the tendencies of development and the conditions under 
which they arise. 
The fragmentary character of his work prevents an in- 
clusive treatment, and we are therefore obliged to limit 
ourselves to a short summary of his most important essays. 
Besides, a representation of his contribution to the study 
of sociology in this form illustrates better than any attempt 
at integration his opinion about the present early stage of 
the science. Simmel believed that a systematic presenta- 
tion of sociology would be possible only in the distant fu- 
ture, and that for the time being the workers in that field 
would have to content themselves with isolated contribu- 
tions. He explicitly states that even his great volume qn 
sociology is not to be regarded as an attempt at a syste- 
matic presentation, but merely as an illustration of the 
application of its method to different phenomena within 
the field. This explains to a large extent the fragmentary 
character of the work, although that is undoubtedly also