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Max Scheler (August 22, 1874, Munich - May 19, 1928, Frankfurt am Main) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... It has been suggested that Contemporary philosophy be merged into this article or section. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... The history of ideas is a field of research in history that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ethics (via Latin from the Ancient Greek moral philosophy, from the adjective of Ä“thos custom, habit), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of values and customs of a person or group. ... Philosophical anthropology is the discipline that seeks to unify the several empirical investigations of human nature in an effort to understand individuals as both creatures of their environment and creators of their own values. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis. ... This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Blaise Pascal (pronounced ), (June 19, 1623–August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. ... · Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano (January 16, 1838 Marienberg am Rhein (near Boppard) - March 17, 1917 Zürich) was an influential figure in both philosophy and psychology. ... Wilhelm Dilthey (November 19, 1833–October 1, 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, student of Hermeneutics, the study of interpretations and meanings, and a philosopher. ... Rudolf Christoph Eucken (January 5, 1846 - September 15, 1926) was a philosopher, and the winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature. ... Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859, ProstÄ›jov – April 26, 1938, Freiburg) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... Ethics (via Latin from the Ancient Greek moral philosophy, from the adjective of Ä“thos custom, habit), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of values and customs of a person or group. ... Philosophical anthropology is the discipline that seeks to unify the several empirical investigations of human nature in an effort to understand individuals as both creatures of their environment and creators of their own values. ...

Scheler developed further the philosophical method of the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, and was called by José Ortega y Gasset "the first man of the philosophical paradise." In 1954 Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, defended his doctoral thesis on "An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler." Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859, ProstÄ›jov – April 26, 1938, Freiburg) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... José Ortega y Gasset (May 9, 1883 - October 18, 1955) was a Spanish philosopher. ... Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion Pope John Paul II (Latin: , Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan PaweÅ‚ II) born   [] (May 18, 1920, Wadowice, Poland – April 2, 2005, Vatican City) reigned as...

Biography

Max Scheler was born in Munich, Germany, August 22, 1874 to a Lutheran father and an Orthodox Jewish mother. As an adolescent, he turned to Catholicism, likely because of its conception of love, although he became increasingly non-committal around 1921. For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ... Orthodox Judaism is one of the three major branches of Judaism. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      As a Christian ecclesiastical...

Scheler studied medicine in Munich and Berlin, and philosophy and sociology under Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Simmel in 1895. He received his doctorate in 1897, and his associate professorship (habilitation thesis) in 1899 at the University of Jena where his advisor was Rudolf Eucken. Throughout his life, Scheler entertained a strong interest in the philosophy of American pragmatism (Eucken corresponded with William James). Wilhelm Dilthey (November 19, 1833–October 1, 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, student of Hermeneutics, the study of interpretations and meanings, and a philosopher. ... Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (March 1, 1858 – September 28, 1918, Berlin, Germany) was one of the first generation of German sociologists. ... Habilitation is a term used within the university system in France, Germany, Austria, and some other European countries such as the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, and countries of former Soviet Union, such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan... Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (FSU) is located in Jena, Thuringia in Germany and was named for the German writer Friedrich Schiller. ... Rudolf Christoph Eucken (January 5, 1846 - September 15, 1926) was a philosopher, and the winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature. ... Pragmatism is a school of philosophy which originated in the United States in the late 1800s. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

He taught at Jena from 1900 to 1906. In 1902 he met the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl for the first time, in Halle. Scheler was never a student of Husserl's and overall, their relationship remained strained. Scheler was rather critical of the "master's" Logical Investigations (1900/01) and Ideas I (1913), and he also harboured reservations of Being and Time by Martin Heidegger, whom he also met various times. Nevertheless, after Scheler's demise in 1928, Heidegger noted, as Ortega y Gasset did, that all philosophers of the century were indebted to Scheler.^{[citation needed]} Many others^{[attribution needed]} considered Scheler's sudden death to be an irreplaceable loss of European thought. Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859, Prostějov – April 26, 1938, Freiburg) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... The Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg is located in the German cities of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and Wittenberg. ... // Being and Time (German Sein und Zeit, 1927) is the most important work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger. ... Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) (pronounced ) was a highly influential German philosopher. ...

From 1907 to 1910 he taught at the University of Munich. He joined the Phenomenological Circle in Munich, centred around M. Beck, Th. Conrad, J. Daubert, M. Geiger, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Theodor Lipps, and A. Pfaender. Due to personal matters he was unfairly caught between the predominantly Catholic university and the local socialist media, which led to the loss of his Munich teaching position in 1910. From 1910 to 1911 Scheler lectured at the Philosophical Society of Goettingen, where he made and renewed acquaintances with Th. Conrad, H. Conrad-Martius, M. Geiger, J. Hering, R. Ingarden, von Hildebrand, Husserl, A. Koyre, and H. Reinach. Edith Stein was one of his students, impressed by him "way beyond philosophy".^{[citation needed]} Scheler unwittingly influenced Catholic circles to this day, including his student Stein and Pope John Paul II who wrote his Habilitation and many articles on Scheler's philosophy. With approximately 48,000 students, the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (German: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München or LMU) is one of the largest universities in Germany. ... Dietrich von Hildebrand (October 12, 1889, Florence, Italy - January 26, 1977, New Rochelle, New York) was a German Catholic philosopher and theologian who was called (informally) by Pope Pius XII the 20th Century Doctor of the Church. ... Theodor Lipps (1851-1914) was a German philosopher. ... Edith Stein (October 12, 1891 – August 9, 1942) was a German philosopher, a Carmelite nun, martyr, and saint of the Catholic Church, who died at Auschwitz. ... Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion Pope John Paul II (Latin: , Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan PaweÅ‚ II) born   [] (May 18, 1920, Wadowice, Poland – April 2, 2005, Vatican City) reigned as...

While his first marriage had ended in divorce, Scheler married Märit Furtwaengler in 1912, who was the sister of the noted conductor. During World War I (1914-1918) Scheler was initially drafted, but later discharged because of astigmia of the eyes. “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

In 1919 he became professor of philosophy and sociology at the University of Cologne. He stayed there until 1928. Early that year, he accepted a new position at the University of Frankfurt. He looked forward to meeting here Ernst Cassirer, Karl Mannheim, R. Otto and R. Wilhelm, sometimes referred to in his writings. In 1927 at a conference in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, arranged by Graf Keyserling, Scheler delivered a lengthy lecture, entitled "Man's Particular Place" (Die Sonderstellung des Menschen), published later in much abbreviated form as Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos [literally: "Man's Situation in the Cosmos"]. His well known oratory style and delivery had captivated his audience -- for about four hours! University of Frankfurt may refer to two (or three) German universities: the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) in Frankfurt am Main the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)) in Frankfurt (Oder), or its historical predecessor... Ernst Cassirer (July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. ... Karl Mannheim (March 27, 1893, Budapest - January 9, 1947, London) was a Jewish Hungarian-born sociologist, influential in the first half of the 20th century and one of the founding fathers of classical sociology. ...

Later life

Toward the end of his life, many invitations were extended to him, among them those from China, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States. However, on advice of his physician, he had to cancel reservations already made with Star Line.

At the time Scheler increasingly focused on political development. He met the Russian emigrant-philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev in Berlin in 1923. Scheler was the only scholar of rank of the then German intelligentsia who warned as early as 1927 in public speeches of the dangers of the growing Nazi movement and Marxism. "Politics and Morals," "The Idea of Eternal Peace and Pacifism" were subjects of talks he delivered in Berlin in 1927. His analyses of capitalism revealed it to be a calculating, globally growing "mind-set", rather than an economic system. While economic capitalism may have had some roots in ascetic Calvinism (cf. Max Weber), its very mind-set, however, is shown to have its origin in modern, sub-conscious angst as expressed in increasing needs for financial and other securities, for protection and personal safeguards as well as for rational manageability of all entities. However, the subordination of the value of the individual person to this mind-set was reason enough for Max Scheler to denounce it and to outline and predict a whole new era of culture and values, which he called "The World-Era of Adjustment." Nikolai Berdyaev Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (Николай Александрович Бердяев) (March 18 [O.S. March 6] 1874 – March 24, 1948) was a Russian-Ukrainian religious and political philosopher. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Marxism takes its name from the praxis (the synthesis of philosophy and political action) of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all or mostly privately[1][2] owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a free market. ... A mindset, in decision theory and general systems theory, refers to a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior... For the painter, see Max Weber (artist). ...

Scheler also advocated an international university to be set up in Switzerland, and was at that time supportive of programs such as "continuing education", and of what he seems to have first called a "United States of Europe." He deplored the gap existing in Germany between power and mind, which gap he regarded to be the very source of an impending dictatorship and the greatest obstacle toward establishing a German democracy. Five years after his demise, the Nazi dictatorship (1933-1945) suppressed Scheler's work. Continuing education is an all encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. ... The United States of Europe is a name given to one version of the hypothetical unification scenarios of Europe, as a sovereign federation of states, similar to the United States of America, both as projected by writers of speculative fiction and by political scientists and politicians. ...

Philosophical contributions

The heart of Scheler's thought was his theory of value. According to Scheler, the value-being of an object preceded perception. The axiological reality of values is prior to knowing. Values and their corresponding disvalues exist in an objective ordering of ranks: To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Axiology, from the Greek axia (αξια, value, worth), is the study of value or quality. ...

1. Values of the holy vs. disvalues of the unholy
2. Values of the mind (truth, beauty, justice vs. disvalues of their opposites)
3. Values of vitality and of the noble vs. disvalues of the ignoble
4. Values of utility vs. disvalues of the useless
5. Values of Pleasure and disvalues of pain.

One may note that most of the older ethical systems (theonomic ethics, nietzscheanism, hedonism, consequentialism, and platonism, for example) fall into axiological error by emphasizing one value-rank to the exclusion of the others. A novel aspect of Scheler's ethics is the importance of the "kairos" or call of the hour. Moral rules cannot guide the person to make ethical choices in difficult, existential life-choices.

A disorder "of the heart" occurs whenever a person prefers a value of a lower rank to a higher rank, or a disvalue to a value.

As Scheler explained in Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values, there are also moral values that relate directly to the person, and never to objects: values of good and evil.

The term Wertsein or value-being is used by Scheler in many contexts, but his untimely death prevented him from working out an axiological ontology. Another unique and controversial element of Scheler's axiology is the notion of the emotive a priori: values can only be felt, just as color can only be seen. Reason cannot think values; the mind can only order categories of value after lived experience has happened. For Scheler, the person is the locus of value-experience, a timeless act-being that acts into time. Scheler's appropriation of a value-based metaphysics renders his phenomenology quite different from the phenomenology of consciousness (Husserl, Sartre) or the existential analysis of the being-in-the-world of Dasein (Heidegger). Scheler's concept of the "lived body" was appropriated in the early work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) (pronounced ) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Maurice Merleau-Ponty (March 14, 1908 – May 4, 1961) was a French phenomenologist philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl. ...

Max Scheler extended the phenomenological method to include a reduction of the scientific method too, thus questioning the idea of Husserl that phenomenological philosophy should be pursued as a rigorous science. Natural and scientific attitudes (Einstellung) are both phenomenologically counterpositive and hence must be sublated in the advancement of the real phenomenological reduction which, in the eyes of Scheler, has more the shapes of an allround ascesis (Askese) rather than a mere logical procedure of suspending the existential judgments. The Wesenschau, according to Scheler, is an act of blowing up the Sosein limits of Sein A into the essential-ontological domain of Sein B, in short, an ontological participation of Sosenheiten, seeing the things as such (cf. the Buddhist concept of tathata, and the Christian theological quidditas). Buddhism is generally viewed as a religion without a Supreme Being or Creator God. ... Quidditas is a philosophical term referring to the essential whatness of a thing, or the ultimate substance of which that thing is made. ...

Major works (English translations)

• (1958) Philosophical Perspectives, translated by Oscar Haac., Boston: Beacon Press.  144 pages. (German title: Philosophische Weltanschauung.)

• (1960) On the Eternal in Man, translated by Bernard Noble., London: SCM Press.  480 pages.

• (1961) Man's Place in Nature, translated by Hans Meyerhoff., New York: The Noonday Press.  105 pages. SBN 374-5-0252-8.

• (1970) The Nature of Sympathy, translated by Peter Heath., New York: Archon Books.  274 pages. ISBN 0-208-01401-2.

• (1972) Ressentiment, edited by Lewis A. Coser; translated by William W. Holdheim., New York: Schocken.  201 pages. ISBN 0-8052-0370-2.

• (1973) Selected Philosophical Essays, translated by David R. Lachterman., Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.  359 pages. ISBN 0-8101-0379-6.

• (1973) Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values: A new attempt toward the foundation of an ethical personalism, translated by Manfred S. Frings and Roger L. Funk., Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.  620 pages. ISBN 0-8101-0415-6. (Original German edition: Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik, 1913-16.)

• (1980) Problems of a Sociology of Knowledge, translated by Manfred S. Frings., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.  239 pages. ISBN 0-7100-0302-1.

• (1987) Person and Self-value: three essays, edited and partially translated by Manfred S. Frings., Boston: Nijhoff.  201 pages. ISBN 90-247-3380-4.

• (1992) On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing. Selected Writings, edited and partially translated by Harold J. Bershady., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  267 pages. ISBN 0-226-73671-7.

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Secondary references

• Deeken, Alfons (1974). Process and Permanence in Ethics: Max Scheler's Moral Philosophy. New York: Paulist Press.  282 pages. ISBN 0-8091-1800-9.

• Frings, Manfred S. (1965). Max Scheler: A concise introduction to the world of a great thinker. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press.  223 pages.

• Frings, Manfred S., editor (1974). Max Scheler (1874-1928): centennial essays. The Hague: Nijhoff.  176 pages.

• Frings, Manfred (1997). The Mind of Max Scheler: The first comprehensive guide based on the complete works. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press.  324 pages. ISBN 0-87462-613-7. 2nd ed., 2001.

• Kelly, Eugene (1977). Max Scheler. Chicago: Twayne Publishers.  203 pages. ISBN 0-8057-7707-5.

• Nota, John H., S.J. (1983). Max Scheler: The Man and His Work, translated by Theodore Plantinga and John H. Nota., Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press.  213 pages. ISBN 0-8199-0852-5. (Original Dutch title: Max Scheler: De man en zijn werk)

• Staude, John Raphael (1967). Max Scheler: An intellectural portrait. New York: The Free Press.  298 pages.

The Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, or the Paulists Fathers, is a Roman Catholic religious order for men, that was founded in 1858 by Fr. ... Duquesne University Press, founded in 1927, is a publisher that is part of Duquesne University. ... Marquette University Press is a university press. ... Free Press is an imprint of Simon & Schuster with headquarters in New York City. ...

External links

• Prof. Frings' Max Scheler Website (www.maxscheler.com)
• Photos of Max Scheler at web site of Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology
• Max-Scheler-Gesellschaft (Max Scheler Society) - German-language website
• A Filosofia de Max Scheler (Portuguese-language website)
• Video of a visit to Scheler's grave in Cologne's Südfriedhof cemetery, February 2007
• Deutsches Leben der Gegenwart, available at Project Gutenberg. (German)