However much an individual may contribute positively to group life, however much his personal life may be tied with social life and submerged in it, he also stands vis-à-vis that totality: giving or receiving, treated well or poorly by it, feeling inwardly or only outwardly committed to it; in short, as part or as object in relation to the social group as subject, to which he nevertheless belongs as a member, as a part-subject, through the very relationships based on his actions and circumstances. This twofold position, which appears logically difficult to explain, is a completely elementary sociological fact.

DEFINE: Simmel frames the individual's dual position as part-subject and object vis-à-vis the social group as an elementary sociological fact.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 436