Because Simmel's ultimate interests are directed to metaphysical problems, to the "meaning" of life, and because these interests are so very noticeable in his treatment of technical substantive questions, it is all too easy to overlook the fact that he has withal probably contributed more to the advancement of the technical substantive concerns of his discipline, even if at times this is more in the nature of a "by-product," than a considerable number of professors of philosophy of the quality that is becoming customary today put together.

XREF: Connects to debates about whether great thinkers contribute most through explicit method or through incidental insight.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 117