ABSTRACT
This conclusion of first part of this book presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the book. The part gives Georg Simmel's methodological analysis of the different forms of inquiry into the socio-historical actuality. Simmel's relativistic viewpoint leads him to a conception of society which might be called an intermediate position between the nominalistic and the realistic view. Society is analyzed in terms of component elements, not as individual existences, but as bearers of relationships. It is an analysis in terms of functions, not in terms of substances; it is an analysis in terms of relationships, not in terms of individuals. Simmel conceives of sociology as a special, limited, and empirical social science, and determines its relations to the other social sciences and to the philosophical inquiries into the phenomena of the socio-historical world. He gives due value to social metaphysics as a fully autonomous form of mental activity, but denounces its claims to encroach upon scientific inquiries.
