12 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
ma to metaphysics as function. It means a stress, not on 
the content and the difference in dogma, but on the form 
and the unity of the thought movement. 
The formal principle of metaphysics is to obtain an in- 
clusive view of the world, to create out of the discrete ele- 
ments of the universe, their oppositions and manifoldness, 
a synthetic unity. Metaphysics has the formal value of 
striving for a complete picture of the world, of aiming at 
fundamental principles. It tries to reach that goal by tak- 
ing out of the manifoldness one appearance which it sees 
often repeated and making this the measure of all things. 
This metaphysical explanation of the world stands beyond 
the truth and error which decide about the actual and 
exact world. Its value is independent of the material er- 
rors of its content and remains even when other than 
philosophic thought gives satisfaction to our thirst for 
knowledge. The axiom that the world is a unitary and 
coherent totality and, as such, intelligible is the vital con- 
cept of all metaphysics. It is a presupposition and will re- 
main a presupposition as long as the larger part of the 
world’s phenomena remain unknown. But this thought 
would never have arisen, could never have functioned as 
a guiding principle, had it been necessary to wait for a 
faultless knowledge of the world’s factual content.? 
Metaphysics is directed toward the totality of exist- 
ence, and even if it deals with elements, they are of inter- 
est only in their relation to that totality. For that reason 
the philosophic truth is different from the scientific truth. 
Metaphysics does not picture the objectivity of things; 
that is the task of the sciences. It pictures a type of men- 
tal activity as it shows itself in a specific conception of 
things. Not correspondence in one way or another with 
t Philosophische Kultur, pp. i-iii. 
t Probl. der Gesch., p. 93.