Grammar studies the pure forms of language, abstracted from the linguistic contents through which these forms come to life. Logic and epistemology study the pure forms of knowing, abstracted from the multitude of cognitions of particular things. Geometry studies pure spatial forms, abstracted from the physical objects which embody them. Sociology as the science of social forms relates to the special sciences which deal with the various contents of social life, such as economic activity, sexual behavior, education, law, or religion, much as geometry relates to the various physical sciences.

DEFINE: Clarifies how sociology as a formal science relates to special social sciences, by analogy to geometry's relationship to physical sciences.

DEFINE: Explains the formalist conception of sociology by analogy: sociology abstracts pure social forms from the specific contents (economics, law, religion) just as grammar, logic, and geometry abstract pure forms from their contents. Builds on: "True sciences require a circumscribed, precisely defined subject matter."

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 45