36 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
But this did not create a new science. Neither did it 
mean that the existing social sciences had to renounce 
their independence and become subdivisions of one inclu- 
sive, synthetic social science which was to be called sociol- 
ogy. In so far as sociology, as a science, rested its claims 
on the ground that man must be understood as a social 
being and that society is the vehicle of all social experi- 
ence, it contained no object which was not already treated 
in one of the existing social sciences. The actual situation 
was that sociology merely proposed a new way of dealing 
with the subject-matter of all these sciences, a method of 
science which, for the very reason that it was applicable 
to the totality of their problems, was not a special science 
in and for itself. In the same way induction, when it in- 
vaded all possible sciences as a method, was not for that 
reason a special science, let alone an all-comprehensive 
science. 
One may call this method of investigating the socio- 
historical actuality the sociological method; but that does 
not supply the justification and legitimation of a sociology 
which shall be a special and independent science. For that 
purpose it is necessary to define the particular subject- 
matter which it shall investigate.! 
The term “sociology” has also been used in connection 
with certain problems regarding society and the social sci- 
ences which are in the last analysis problems of a philo- 
sophical nature. Such are the problems regarding the pre- 
suppositions of the social sciences which belong to the 
feld of social methodology. Others are problems regarding 
interpretations of historical developments, and fall under 
the philosophy of history. Others, again, are problems re- 
garding the relative value of individual and collective ac- 
complishments, and belong to the field of social philosophy. 
t Soz., pp. 2-4; Grundfr. der Soz., pp. 18-20.