He takes up the issue of the relationship between “form” and “life” in three different but closely interconnected discussions: First, there is the question of how the element of “form” distinguishes art as a separate sphere of value. This is most explicitly discussed in his two attempts at a systematic philosophy of art. Second, there is the sociological-historical question about the relation between (individual and collective) life and the (aesthetic and ethical) forms in modern bourgeois society. This topic is dominant both in the History of the Modern Drama of 1909 and in the Theory of the Novel of 1916. Finally, a third strand concerns existential and ethical questions, most explicitly discussed in Soul and Form and in the essay “On Poverty of Spirit”.