[author]齐美尔,G.

[content]

It is the doubtful advantage of incipient sciences that they must temporarily furnish refuge for all sorts of vagrant problems. The boundaries of new sciences are necessarily indefinite and indefensible. They are thus open to all the homeless. They therefore gather by degrees a miscellaneous content which can- not be managed. Then the process of limitation begins. The immediate effect is disappointing, but, on the other hand, precise bounds secure sciences against later disappointment. The new science of sociology is entering the stage of definition……

[keywords]social groups；individual ele- ment；self-preservation；dead hand；social organ