(1 
METHOD AND TECHNIQUE OF FORMAL SOCIOLOGY 73 
the character of the building-material. This has in and for 
itself a significance and value which are apart from all in- 
dividual or social life and which require a special investi- 
zation. This factualness of the social content is, of course, 
in relation to the full actuality, also a mere abstraction. 
The economic and political contents do not develop through 
their own logic alone, but through the totality of mental 
and historical forces. 
The social sciences in the usual sense of the term aim 
at the investigation of this factualness of the social con- 
tent. The social actuality cannot be grasped in its imme- 
diate totality. It can only be made intelligible when re- 
solved through abstractions into special fields of scientific 
investigation. There is therefore no science of society, but 
only a series of social sciences, just as there is no science 
of nature, but only a series of natural sciences.! 
The dependence of our thinking on two mutually sup- 
porting thought forms, already referred to in the Intro- 
duction, becomes again manifest in the special field of the 
social sciences. A complete understanding of the factual 
objectivity of social situations can be reached only by an 
application of both the historical method and the method 
aiming at general laws. It is to be understood both in its 
genetic aspect, as a phase in a historical development, and 
in its timeless aspect. The first is to be obtained by study- 
ing it as a development from the preceding situation. The 
latter is to be obtained by a comparison with all similar 
situations independent of time and place. 
The political or economic aspect of the present situa- 
tion can be understood only on the basis of a knowledge 
and understanding of the past. The past, however, is intel- 
ligible only through our experience of the present. An 
sconomiec occurrence can be explained only on the basis 
\ Grundfr. der Soz., pp. 24-26.