Antiquity lacked both full objectivity and full subjectivity in thought

Evidence

One may well say that antiquity lacked both the broadest and purest conception of objectivity and the deepest and most precise conception of subjectivity. The concept of natural law as an absolutely substantive, universal rule, indifferent to all “values,” was as foreign to antiquity as the real concept of the ego, with its productivity and its freedom, its problematics, and its value that outweighs the world. The psyche neither went so far beyond itself nor so deeply into itself as it later did via the synthesis—or also the antithesis—of the Christian ethos with modern natural and historical sciences. This cannot have been without internal and at least indirect connection with the sociopolitical structure of the Greek world. The enormous internal prerogatives of the narrower state circles bound the individual by and large to a certain intermediate image of life and the world that fell between universality and ultimate personality; and the whole form of existence inherent in these restrictions had to be abolished in order to make room for development toward those two extremes. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 697

Categorization

• DEFINE: Simmel correlates the narrow Greek social circle with a restricted mental image of the world — a direct theoretical precursor to how narrow vs. broad circles shape consciousness.
• XREF: Supports the essay’s broader theme that the size of the social circle conditions the observer’s mental world, positioning ancient observers as bound to ‘intermediate’ images. — connects to: Greek thought lacked a pure relational concept, subsuming reciprocity under friendship — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 581; Objectivity is historical and exists only in relation to man.; Alienation is a distinctly modern idea unknown to Greek thought — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 823 (+1 more)

Related

• Objectivity is historical and exists only in relation to man. (similarity 0.82)
• Aristotle failed to unify determinate concepts into an absolute concept (similarity 0.81)
• Greek thought lacked a pure relational concept, subsuming reciprocity under friendship (similarity 0.80)