Individuals stand under two mutually alien normative centers.

Evidence

We are not discussing here particular harmonies or collisions of these two claims. The point, rather, is that man internally stands under two, mutually alien norms; that our movement revolving around our own center (something totally different from egoism) claims to be as definitive as the movement around the social center; in fact, it claims to be the decisive meaning of life. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6328

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise statement of Simmel’s dual-norm thesis: self-centeredness (distinct from egoism) vs. social-centeredness as mutually alien yet both definitive.
• DEEPTHINKING: The point that self-revolving movement ‘claims to be the decisive meaning of life’ is a subtle claim — the individual norm isn’t merely one claim among two but stakes a totalizing claim.