14 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
speculation on principle in certain cases, but one cannot 
do this on the basis of standards which decide for em- 
pirical, scientific knowledge about validity and signifi- 
cance. These standards do not apply to metaphysics 
because its problems and aims are different. It creates a 
world-picture according to its own laws, with its own 
methods, and by its own technique. 
But apart from the value and significance which phil- 
osophic thought possesses in and for itself, as a special 
function, as a special attitude toward the world, it has a 
meaning and significance as a forerunner of exact science. 
Philosophy was the mother of all sciences, and only 
gradually have they obtained their independence. As the 
forerunner of science, it takes in a tentative grasp what is 
as yet unprovable and combines in inclusive concepts what 
is as yet unobservable as single facts. With these it draws 
pictures of the world which will be partially confirmed, 
partially refuted by methodological empiricism, but which 
are none the less the first approaches to knowledge. 
Scientific thought begins with wide concepts and gen- 
eral reflections. It becomes more narrow in proportion as 
it becomes more exact. With a few ideas it will try to 
grasp the totality of existence, and only after innumerable 
trials and errors in the highest abstractions does it begin 
with analysis of complex concepts. It then follows the sin- 
gle threads of the weaving, which it formerly thought to 
understand without knowledge of its structure. 
The form of some occurrence which has often been 
observed on the surface of appearances is postulated as a 
general law until the incidental character of the coexist- 
ence of its composing factors is discovered. Then the 
forms of the latter are postulated as the real general laws 
until the process repeats itself. From a tracing of the 
{ Probl. der Gesch., pp. 92-93.