CONCLUSION 
265 
and the society which molds him comes to be viewed in a 
half-mystical light. The eighteenth century—mechanistic, 
rationalistic, and individualistic—has tended mainly to- 
ward the first view; the nineteenth century—biological, 
idealistic, and collectivistic—toward the latter. 
The eighteenth-century view found expression in the 
different social-contract theories. The individual reigned 
supreme. Political society was his creation, the result of 
his conscious voluntary activity. It was a means to his end, 
be it liberty, justice, or the protection of property. The 
fact that the individual was the actual bearer and positive 
factor of the social structure was fully realized and led the 
social theorists to devote considerable attention to individ- 
ual psychology. The approach was from the individual 
toward the group, and the social or political structure was 
valued in terms of its significance for the individual life. 
The nineteenth-century view found expression in the 
organic theories of society on the one hand, and in the ide- 
alistic conceptions of the state on the other hand. The 
realization of the importance of environment in the biologi- 
cal studies reinforced this tendency to place the emphasis 
on society, the state, the group; in a word, on the social en- 
vironment rather than on the individual. He was merely 
a product of the social environment, a cell in the social or- 
ganism. The state was not a means to his ends; it was an 
end in itself. The approach was from the group toward the 
individual, and the individual was valued in terms of his 
significance for the social or political structure. 
Simmel’s conception may be regarded as a conciliation 
between the two. It leads to a viewpoint which brings the 
immediate realization of the necessity for reciprocity or at 
least constant alternation between the two modes of ap- 
proach. Viewed in the light of the tendencies of the nine- 
teenth century, his approach seems a return to the con-