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 interest
 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 substance
 and form constitute an indissoluble unity. That
problem 1s the identification, systematic arrangement, psychological
 explanation, and historical development of the pure
forms of socialization.
The aim is to discover in the countless historical groupings
 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.