THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE GROUP 205
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the family. It appears at one time as an inclusive social
circle absorbing the whole of the individual, but clearly
separate and distinct from all other families. Later it ap-
pears as a more narrow social circle capable of functioning
as an individual unit in a wider social circle. The patri-
archal family, despotic and closely knitted, was self-suffi-
cient from the economic and the military point of view.
The modern small family is more highly individualized,
but combines as a unit in the wider social circle, such as
the state or the nation.
In the modern complicated social structure, consisting
of a great series of ever widening social circles, there arises
with regard to each of these circles a similar problem of ap-
parent sociological ambiguity. If there exist only two dif-
ferent social circles, the respective positions of the individ-
ual in these circles can easily be compared. In case of a
great many circles, the situation becomes more complex.
In that case, each circle except the largest has an inter-
mediate position between a larger and a smaller one. It
functions in its relation to the larger circle as a unit with
individual characteristics, in relation to the smaller ones
as a complex of a higher order. The correlation formerly
referred to was a correlation between the individual ele-
ment, the small circle, and the large circle. In the complex
social structure of modern civilization, we observe that a
single social circle can partake of the characteristics of all
the three factors in the correlation, depending on the rela-
tion in which it is viewed. This does not impair in any way
the truth and the value of the correlation. On the con-
trary, it proves that it is of a purely formal sociological
character completely independent of any specific content.
If there exist in social structures, apart from the indi-
vidual units, small but complex circles and also large cir-
cles, the first and the last appear to be drawn together in
