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On
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SOCIOLOGY
bo.
at least by treating them as merely accidental. We gain a
science of language by abstracting language and its imme-
diate psychological conditions from everything that lies
beyond, although, as a matter of fact, there would never
have been any utterance without concrete motives.
In the same manner we shall obtain a sociology by an
inquiry into the laws, forms, and developments of social-
izations. In reality they determine life only together with
other functions and forces, but they can nevertheless con-
stitute the subject-matter of a special science only in ab-
straction from these factors.!
Sociology, then, is the study of the forms of socializa-
tion. It is to investigate all forms of socialization: not
merely those which have become objectified in social in-
stitutions, but also the minor and more ephemeral sociali-
zations which do not take objective form in permanent
social structures. Society does not consist merely of the
objective social structures which have obtained a certain
independence of the individual bearers; it also consists of
the thousand minor processes of socialization between
individuals which contribute to the functional unity of the
group.
[t seems at first as if economic, political, and military
organizations, castes, classes, and families, guilds, par-
ishes, and similar great institutions actually constitute
the whole of society. If that were the case, a sociological
treatment of those institutions would cover the whole
field of the science of society. It is obvious that the greater,
the more significant a range of social interests and activi-
ties is, the more readily will the immediate interindividual
life and the direct reciprocities crystallize in objective
structures. But besides these prominent phenomena, im-
posing through their size and significance, there are innu-
1 “Superordination and Subordination,” 4. J. S., II, 415.
