ABSTRACT
Hans Freyer has dramatized the role Ferdinand Tonnies played in preserving the German tradition in sociology from the positivism which prevailed in America, France, and England. Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft appeared as a synthesis of rationalism and romanticism, idealism and materialism, and realism and nominalism. Social biology, as a part of general sociology, is social anthropology abstracted from all psychology and as such involves the biological study of race and genetics, as well as other biological considerations, and is studied in connection with ethnography, demography, and other disciplines which may be classified with sociology proper. Although Tonnies made important contributions in applied and empirical sociology, he is best known for his work in the pure or theoretical field. Tonnies' system finds its most adequate description in his Introduction to Sociology, which appeared four years before his death; and, although it never attained the recognition of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, is more readable and is a great help in the understanding of his sociology.
