If you were to ask educated people today by what ideals they live, most would give a specialized answer derived from their occupational experience. Only rarely would they speak of a cultural ideal which rules them as total human beings. There is a good reason for this. Not only is there a lack of material for a comprehensive cultural ideal, but the fields which it would have to circumscribe are too numerous and heterogeneous to permit such intellectual simplification.

XREF: Connects to critiques of specialization in modern life, echoing themes in works by thinkers like C.P. Snow regarding 'two cultures' and generalist-vs-specialist debates.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 847