THE CONCEPT OF SOCIETY 33

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 take various forms. In these forms the individuals
grow into a unity on the basis of various interests; and
these interests, sensuous or ideal, momentary or permanent,
functioning as causes or as purposes, are satisfied and find
their realization within the framework of these socializations.

In every social phenomenon, content and social form
constitute a unitary actuality. A social form can no more
attain existence detached from all content than a spatial
form can exist without substance. In actuality they are
together the inseparable elements of which every social
fact and occurrence is made up. They consist of an interest,
 a purpose, or a motive on the one side, and, on the
other side, of a form or manner of reciprocity between
the individuals through which this content attains social
actuality.!
That these purposes and interests, however, attain to
realization in the form of a society, in the form of a reciprocity
 between individuals, is the subject-matter of special
 scientific consideration. That men build a society
means that they live for the attainment of those purposes
in definite forms of interaction. If there is to be a science
of society as such, it must therefore abstract these forms
from the complex phenomena of social life, and it must
make them the subject of determination and explanation.?
Such a science, therefore, can only apply the term
“society” either to the abstract general concept of the social
 forms, to the genus of which they are the species, or
to the aggregate of these forms in operation at a given
time.
1 Ibid., pp. 6-7.

2 “The Number of the Members as Determining the Sociological Form of the
Group,” 4. J. S., VIIL, 1.
8 Soz., p. 11.