ABSTRACT
The inner nature of sociological activity, its "life," will therefore necessarily express itself in the mirror-like reflection of "directions." These directions certify sociology as a living concern. Sociologists like Karl Dunkmann, Alfred Vierkandt, and Leopold Wiese liked to be known as "philosophical" sociologists. Design-sociology would then be the strategy in which the socialist plays the tactician. Formal sociologists tend, on the contrary, to reject socialism and to show annoyance of the universal and oh-so-unscientific reform fanaticism of the other side. For the given social reality comprises such a complicated, intertwined whole that it would be too much to demand of one science the capacity for unravelling it. All reality comes with a price tag for the energies expended and the forces being marshalled; it is the common problem of all sociological directions. Whether their subject is law, art, sports, or politics, sociologists are obliged to inquire into the energies being consumed, because they must be provided for.
