Max Scheler
We grasp values directly through feeling, in an order from pleasant to holy – and the human being is the creature open to the world.
Placement
A material ethics of values against Kant’s formalism; with Helmuth Plessner a founder of philosophical anthropology.
Key ideas
- Material ethics of values
- Man's Place in Nature
Influence
Influenced by 3
Augustine
influenced by
Scheler took from Augustine the primacy of love over knowledge and the ordo amoris structuring a person’s values (‘Liebe und Erkenntnis’, 1915; ‘Ordo amoris’, publ. 1933). M. Scheler, “Liebe und Erkenntnis” (1915); “Ordo amoris” (written c. 1916; publ. 1933); SEP “Max Scheler”
Evidence: AI draft
Augustine › 354–430
Friedrich Nietzsche
influenced by
Scheler took over Nietzsche’s ressentiment but denied that Christian love springs from it, finding it instead in modern humanitarian morality (‘Über Ressentiment und moralisches Werturteil’, 1912). M. Scheler, “Über Ressentiment und moralisches Werturteil” (1912); “Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen”, in Vom Umsturz der Werte (1915); SEP “Max Scheler”
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
Edmund Husserl
influenced by ✓
Scheler, who met Husserl in 1901, applied the phenomenological intuition of essences to values in a material ethics of value (Der Formalismus in der Ethik, 1913–16). M. Scheler, Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik (1913–16), in Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung; SEP “Max Scheler”
Edmund Husserl › 1859–1938
Influenced 3
Edith Stein
influenced
Stein heard Scheler in Göttingen and discussed his theory of the perception of other minds, partly critically, in her dissertation On the Problem of Empathy (1917). E. Stein, Zum Problem der Einfühlung (1917); Aus dem Leben einer jüdischen Familie (written 1933–35; publ. 1965); SEP “Edith Stein”
Evidence: AI draft
Edith Stein › 1891–1942
Karl Mannheim
influenced
Mannheim answered Scheler’s essays on the sociology of knowledge (1924) but rejected his eternal essences for a dynamic, historically relative standard (‘Das Problem einer Soziologie des Wissens’, 1925). K. Mannheim, “Das Problem einer Soziologie des Wissens”, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 53 (1925); M. Scheler (ed.), Versuche zu einer Soziologie des Wissens (1924); SEP “Max Scheler”
Evidence: AI draft
Karl Mannheim › 1893–1947
Mikhail Bakhtin
influenced
In ‘Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity’ (early 1920s; publ. 1979) Bakhtin drew on Scheler’s critique of empathy as fusion (1913) for the author’s outsideness. M. M. Bakhtin, “Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity” (early 1920s; publ. 1979); M. Scheler, Zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Sympathiegefühle (1913); Wesen und Formen der Sympathie (1923); B. Poole, “From phenomenology to dialogue”, in K. Hirschkop and D. Shepherd (eds.), Bakhtin and Cultural Theory (2nd ed., 2001)
Evidence: AI draft
Mikhail Bakhtin › 1895–1975
Criticism
Criticizes 1
Immanuel Kant
criticised
Scheler rejected Kant’s formal ethics, holding that a priori values are given in feeling and ground a material ethics of value (Der Formalismus in der Ethik, 1913–16). M. Scheler, Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik (1913–16); SEP “Max Scheler”
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Works
Values can be felt – against Kant's formal ethics.
Position
Scheler applied the phenomenological method to ethics, emotions and the human being. Against Kant’s formal ethics of duty he argued that values are not created by reason but given in feeling: we grasp them in an emotional intuition, much as we see colours. Values form an objective hierarchy, from the agreeable through vital and spiritual values to the holy. He also wrote influential studies on sympathy, love, shame and resentment, and helped found the sociology of knowledge. His late work on the place of the human being in the cosmos became a founding text of philosophical anthropology.
Life & context
Scheler, born in Munich, came into contact with the phenomenological circles of Munich and Göttingen and became one of the movement’s most original figures. After a period of intense Catholic commitment he taught in Cologne from 1919, later turning away from the church. He died suddenly in 1928, shortly after accepting a chair in Frankfurt.
Further main works
- On the Phenomenology and Theory of Sympathy (1913)
- On the Eternal in Man (1921)
- The Forms of Knowledge and Society (1926)
- The Human Place in the Cosmos (1928)
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