ABSTRACT
This chapter refers to older sources of thought and to derive from them guidelines that might prove to be helpful in coping with the contemporary predicament in sociology. It proposes to show how the positions of Thomas Hobbes and Giambattista Vico converge on, and are combined in, the work of Ferdinand Toennies. Thomas Hobbes's approach is constructional, while Ferdinand Toennies combine the constructional and historical, or the rationalistic and empiristic aspects. Giambattista Vico's argued historical dimension to chiefly analytic schemes. He offers a guide to historical sociology. Ferdinand Toenniesian system of special sociology, the transhistorical and static aspect of society is dealt with in what Ferdinand Toennies calls "pure" sociology while the historical and dynamic aspect is dealt with in "applied" sociology. All the authors, although proceeding from different points of departure, agree that the varied world of human experience must be comprehended within a conceptual context of limits.
