In his models of understanding between the philosophy of history and aesthetics, Lars Christian Grabbe highlights the evident contribution that Georg Simmel makes to a philosophical theory of knowledge within the context of a philosophy of society. From this perspective, he is an early pioneer of a cultural analysis of the interconnection between the self and the (object) world. Simmel elaborates on the intertwining of the self and the world, life and form, in an explicitly symbolic-theoretical dimension that integrates aspects of sensibility and imagination, limitation and expansion of being, as well as virtuality and reality. The principle of understanding that Simmel establishes, which Grabbe analyzes in detail in his study, is the equally a priori condition for the symbolic cognitive ability of humans: imagination, anchored at the intersection of sensibility and intellect.