204 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
family group appears to give a definite support to the in- 
dividualization. The single individual is apparently unable 
to face the large community alone. Only by giving up a 
part of his absolute ego to a few others and by uniting with 
these others in a small circle can he guard and maintain his 
individual uniqueness. He has to devote himself and his 
interests to a few others in order to be able to face the 
whole community on a broader front. In this way mem- 
bership in the smallest circle within the widest group can 
support and protect the differentiation, although it usually 
serves this purpose only during the period of preparation 
and transition. 
The modern family fulfils this function in an ideal way. 
As a collective unity it offers its members on the one hand 
the opportunity for a preliminary differentiation which 
prepares them for later, fuller differentiations. On the 
other hand it offers them a certain protection under which 
the individual differentiations can develop until they are 
capable of asserting themselves in the social totality. Mod- 
ern civilization gives definite rights both to the individual- 
ity and to the widest possible circle. In such a social struc- 
ture the family takes an intermediate position and partakes 
of the characteristics both of the small group and of the 
large group. It appears as an extension of the individu- 
ality, as a unity acting as one, distinct and separate from 
all other social units. But it also appears as a complex 
plurality within which the individual is differentiated from 
all others and develops his self-realization and self-suffi- 
ciency. 
This double function leads to a sociological ambiguity. 
The family appears sometimes as an individual unit in the 
larger circles, sometimes as an intermediate circle between 
the individual and the larger circle. Both these functions 
may be found in the different phases of the evolution of