44 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
of a special science seldom occurs in the purity and isola-
tion in which it is scientifically treated. In reality it is al-
ways mixed and entangled with phenomena to which other
sciences are devoted. Each special science treats an ab-
straction, and the case of sociology is not different.! That
abstraction is the form of socialization. To describe the
different types of social forms and to find the laws accord-
ing to which the members of a group and the groups them-
selves interact, sociology may draw its material from other
sciences. In so far it is an eclectic science. but it is not a
synthetic science.?
Sociology is a special and a limited science. It is a spe-
cial science, not because its object belongs with other ob-
jects under a higher general concept, as is the case for clas-
sical philology, but because it approaches an entire field of
objects from a special point of view. It is differentiated
from other social sciences, not by its object, but by the spe-
cial viewpoint which guides the abstraction of its subject-
matter from the social actuality.® It is neither a social
philosophy, a philosophy of history. nor a synthesis of the
social sciences. It is a special science with a well-defined
field of investigation and a clearly formulated task: the
study of the forms of socialization.
1 “Superordination and Subordination,” 4. J. S.. II. 176-77, note
2 Soz. Diff., pp. 2, 4.
3 Soz., p. 10.
