64 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
That the term “historical law” has a very different
meaning from that of natural law is evident. It is merely
a formulation for the relation between conceptual unities
treated as a single phenomenon without any regard for the
actually effective forces within the composing elements.
Historical laws are special laws, laws for occurrences within
special fields which are conceived as separate from and independent
 of the single elements on the one hand and the
wider cosmic circle on the other. They result from an extreme
 simplification of very complex material on the basis
of presuppositions which imply a social and historical realism,
 a conception of certain phases of social and historical
 life as unities of independent reality.
Appearances of considerable internal difference are compared
 and treated as if they were identical. The state, religion,
 culture, the forms of production, the position of
women, and innumerable other concepts of identical logical
content are observed in certain relations which, because
they are repeated, are considered inevitable. But no two
of these cases are actually identical. The law which is deduced
 from the observation of one situation and its results
is in reality valid for only that one case. Without an investigation
 into the single elements, we can never be sure
that the actual forces do not lie just in those factors in
which the cases differ, and we can never be certain that
the differences are not more fundamental than the similarities.

The observed correlation between conceptual unities
which result from a synthetic view of pluralities of coexistent
 phenomena does not yield any information regarding
the actually effective elements and gives no guaranty of
repetition. The historical law does not go down to primary
forces; and this is even more evident in those laws which
profess to explain the historical development of social in-