74 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
of a specific historical-psychical constellation. But this de- 
duction is an explanation only if we assume definite fixed 
correlations. We could never deduce a historical develop- 
ment if we did not assume above the individual case gener- 
al relations, permanent tendencies, and regular correla- 
tions. Without these assumptions the totality would fall 
to pieces into a series of atomic occurrences. But these 
general laws which enable us to relate the situation or oc- 
currence to the determining factors and conditions are in 
themselves the product of historical combinations. Forces 
and occurrences in the past have brought the things around 
us into forms and relationships which now appear as of 
general and superhistorical validity. It is because we con- 
sider them as of superhistorical validity that we are able 
to view the historical appearances of later date as special 
illustrations of general laws. Each method must therefore 
search for a justification in the other at every point of its 
application. Only through the reciprocal relation between 
the two can we hope to obtain an understanding of the 
objective actuality.! 
A fundamental understanding of the economic or po- 
litical aspect of a social situation would therefore require 
a psychological, a sociological, and a factual understand- 
ing, the latter to be obtained by the alternative applica- 
tion of the historical and the general inductive method. 
The aim of sociology is an understanding of the proc- 
esses of socialization. In this case the second category of 
cognition loses its methodological significance. The phe- 
nomena co-ordinated by means of this viewpoint have 
now become the central problem. The other two categories 
of cognition, however, maintain their methodological func- 
tion. The process of socialization can still be regarded from 
these two viewpoints. It may be viewed as the product of 
L Phil. des Geldes, p. 79.