GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
Synopsis oF SiMMeL’s PHILOSOPHY 
HIS study has been written for a specific purpose, 
namely, to indicate Simmel’s conception of the rela- 
tions between the different fields of theoretic inquiry 
into the socio-historical actuality, to give his contributions 
to the methodology of the social sciences, and to illustrate 
his conception of sociology as a science. To obtain that 
end, different passages from his numerous works have been 
lifted out of their immediate setting and integrated in a 
more or less unified structure on the basis of his fundamen- 
tal conception regarding the relation of philosophy to sci- 
ence. 
It is hoped that this form of presentation will serve 
the particular aim in view, even if it does not do full jus- 
tice to Simmel’s work. He was one of the most interesting 
representatives of the philosophy of the early twentieth 
century and, as such, deserves attention from a point of 
view quite different from the one from which this study 
has been written. It is not our task to give an interpreta- 
tion and evaluation of his work with reference to meta- 
physical problems, but before we proceed with our specific 
study, we must briefly sketch an outline of his general 
philosophy. This will indicate the main characteristics of 
his thought and serve as a background for an understand- 
ing of his specific contributions to our field. 
Georg Simmel was primarily a social philosopher. His 
problems were not problems of conceptual abstractions. 
They arose out of an effort to reach an understanding of 
the socio-historical actualities, of art and economic values, 
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