THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE GROUP 205

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the family. It appears at one time as an inclusive social
circle absorbing the whole of the individual, but clearly
separate and distinct from all other families. Later it appears
 as a more narrow social circle capable of functioning
as an individual unit in a wider social circle. The patriarchal
 family, despotic and closely knitted, was self-sufficient
 from the economic and the military point of view.
The modern small family is more highly individualized,
but combines as a unit in the wider social circle, such as
the state or the nation.
In the modern complicated social structure, consisting
of a great series of ever widening social circles, there arises
with regard to each of these circles a similar problem of apparent
 sociological ambiguity. If there exist only two different
 social circles, the respective positions of the individual
 in these circles can easily be compared. In case of a
great many circles, the situation becomes more complex.
In that case, each circle except the largest has an intermediate
 position between a larger and a smaller one. It
functions in its relation to the larger circle as a unit with
individual characteristics, in relation to the smaller ones
as a complex of a higher order. The correlation formerly
referred to was a correlation between the individual element,
 the small circle, and the large circle. In the complex
social structure of modern civilization, we observe that a
single social circle can partake of the characteristics of all
the three factors in the correlation, depending on the relation
 in which it is viewed. This does not impair in any way
the truth and the value of the correlation. On the contrary,
 it proves that it is of a purely formal sociological
character completely independent of any specific content.
If there exist in social structures, apart from the individual
 units, small but complex circles and also large circles,
 the first and the last appear to be drawn together in