The Foundation of Sociology

In his review of Simmel's Sociology, Alfred Vierkandt makes the following ambitious claim: If sociology succeeds in developing itself into an autonomous individual science, then its future historian will have to celebrate Simmel as its founder, and even it this process is not completed, his work remains an outstanding, penetrating achievement. He has indeed demarcated an autonomous group of problems for the study of society and thereby demonstrated the possibility and urgent need for a new discipline. His distinction between the form and content of social life elevates him above the encyclopaedic interpretation of sociology. In the same way, he distinguishes himself from those who allow sociology to be identified with the tasks of historical, cultural or social philosophy. For its specific problem is always the interactions and relationships between the individual elements of a group. [ 1 ] If we leave aside for the moment a judgement upon this claim, then we should at least investigate how Simmel arrived at what he himself conceived of as 'a new concept of sociology'. In order to do this it is necessary to return to his early writings so that we may reconstruct systematically and historically Simmel's progress towards this goal.