Since culture places life-contents in an incomparably tangled knot of subject and object, two meanings of the concept are justifiable. The term “objective culture” can be used to designate things in that state of elaboration, development, and perfection which leads the psyche to its own fulfillment or indicates the path to be traversed by individuals or collectivities on the way to a heightened existence. By subjective culture I mean the measure of development of persons thus attained.

DEFINE: Simmel distinguishes objective culture (external elaborations perfecting things) from subjective culture (the internal development of persons).

DEFINE: Simmel distinguishes objective culture (elaborated things and institutions) from subjective culture (developmental attainment in individuals), a classic distinction in his sociology.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 564