SUMMARY

HE two chapters of this book give a brief synopsis
of Simmel’s social metaphysics as given in his Philosophy
 of Money. They illustrate the function of a
social metaphysics as contrasted with the function of an
empirical social science and with the philosophic inquiry
into the presuppositions of the social sciences. They also
illustrate what his conception of metaphysics and his emphasis
 on function and thought form rather than on dogma
and system lead to in practical application. They do not
lead to a well-rounded, systematic social philosophy. But
that, according to Simmel, is their strength, not their weakness.

Absolute and abstract philosophic systems are too far
removed and remain too far distant from the single appearances
 of practical life to be capable of lifting them out of
their isolation and relating them to all other appearances
of life. They fulfil their function of seeing life whole and
the manifoldness of the cosmos as a unitary totality only
at the cost of neglecting large numbers of single phenomena.
 Simmel’s functional relativism and subtle dialectic
give the metaphysical thought form a sufficient mobility
and flexibility to enable it to relate even the most fleeting
historical appearance on the surface of life to the most fundamental
 aspects of existence.
The total inquiry pursued in this third book is a metaphysical
 inquiry. The unity of the single inquiries lies,
therefore, not in the relation between their propositions
or in their contribution to a special field of knowledge, but
in the unitary thought movement which aimed through

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