04 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
due in part to Simmel’s intuitive fear and dislike of any
structural rigidity.
The topics of the following chapters have, notwithstanding
 this fact, been selected with the view of giving at
least a suggestion of unity. All unnecessary detail and expansion
 of irrelevant points have been omitted, and the
choice of sequence and the special treatment of the material
 are due to the attempt to indicate with a few bold
strokes what Simmel’s sociology looks like. The aim has
not been to give a comprehensive interpretation, but merely
 to indicate its skeleton structure. It is hoped that these
chapters will suggest none the less what sociology according
 to Simmel purports to be. We feel justified in this attempt
 to suggest at least some kind of unity, notwithstanding
 the author’s explicit warning, because only by treating
it as a single unified field of inquiry can we indicate its right
place between social methodology and social metaphysics.