84 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
The standpoint from which the individual may be un- 
derstood may be taken either within or outside the individ- 
ual. The totality of his life may be regarded either as the 
centripetal destiny of its bearer or as the product and ele- 
ment of the social life. Therefore the fact of socialization 
brings the individual into a double situation. He is in- 
cluded in it and is at the same time in antithesis to it. He 
is a member of its organism and at the same time a closed 
organic whole. 
“Within” and “without” are not two determinations 
which exist alongside of each other, but they signify the 
whole unitary position of the social being. His existence 
is therefore not merely in subdivision of its content par- 
tially social and partially individual. It stands under the 
fundamental, formative, irreducible category of a unity, 
which cannot be expressed otherwise than through thé syn- 
thesis of these two logically antithetical determinations. So- 
ciety consists not only of individuals who are in part not 
socialized, but also of individuals who are conscious of lead- 
ing a completely social existence on the one hand and at 
the same time a completely individual existence on the 
other hand. The social being is the synthetic category of 
the two, just as the concept of causation is an aprio- 
ristic unity which includes the two elements of cause and 
effect.! 
This analysis enables us to see the second a priori of 
empirical social life. “It may be formulated as the ability 
to view society as the terminus a quo and the terminus ad 
quem of human beings who view themselves as a ferminus a 
quo and a terminus ad quem of its qualities, developments, 
and destinies.”? 
The third a priori might be roughly formulated as a 
1 Soz., pp. 88-41. 
* Ibid, p. 41.