40 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
the forms in which they occur may nevertheless be similar. 
On the other hand, the same content can be realized in 
very different forms of socialization. The economic inter- 
est may be realized both through competition and through 
deliberate organization of producers; it may be satisfied 
through detachment from other economic groups or 
through combination with those groups. The religious 
contents of life, while remaining identical in substance, 
demand now a free, now a centralized community form. 
The interests which lie at the foundation of the relation 
between the sexes are satisfied in a greater variety of family 
formations than can be enumerated. On the one hand, the 
forms in which the most divergent contents are realized 
may be identical. On the other hand, the substance may 
remain while the socialization that carries it may change 
into a variety of forms. 
These facts furnish the legitimation of the sociological 
problem, although in their objective concreteness sub- 
stance and form constitute an indissoluble unity. That 
problem 1s the identification, systematic arrangement, psy- 
chological explanation, and historical development of the pure 
forms of socialization. 
The aim is to discover in the countless historical group- 
ings the principles of group formation as such. The object 
is to approximate the laws governing the influences which 
human beings exert upon one another in their reciprocal 
contacts. These laws are in themselves not affected by 
the material causes or purposes of these contacts, although 
the different contents of socialization will lead to various 
combinations, different degrees of strength, and different 
tendencies of development. 
We reach a science of religion by turning our attention 
away from all other interests of life except religion, or 
1 Soz., pp. 7-9.