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SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY 67
nothing but give none the less a first orientation in the
manifoldness of the historical occurrences. But an inquiry
aiming at exact knowledge cannot be satisfied with a cor-
relation between phenomenological complexes formulated
in terms of a historical law. It cannot accept the presuppo-
sition of a special momentum for a particular social insti-
tution or for a special aspect of social life, nor can it as-
sume a unitary force for those institutions which is differ-
ent from and independent of the sum of the forces of its
elements. It has to continue its process of analysis and
differentiation of phenomena until it approaches the actu-
ally effective laws of the single elements. It has to explode
the artificial unity of the complex, restore the independent
efficacy of the elements within the complex, and take cog-
nizance of the efficacy of elements outside of the complex.
In this approach toward the actually effective forces
and factors, the specific concept of “historical law” will
finally dissolve. This is only natural. The formulation for
relations between occurrences within a special field must
lose all validity when it becomes recognized that this spe-
cial field is in actuality not separate from and independent
of the composing factors within and the cosmic circle with-
out. Human history does not occur as a separate, self-
contained chapter of which only the beginning and end are
influenced by cosmic forces. It develops in continual en-
dosmose and exosmose with these cosmic forces. It is con-
tinually influenced by forces from the outside which can-
not be determined from preceding history, and, as these
forces and factors are not constant, the so-called historical
law cannot give an adequate explanation of historical de-
velopment. This inadequacy of the historical law is most
clearly visible in the laws of the development of the special
fields of socio-historical life.
A history of art which aims at a full and fundamen-
