Scheler's Ethical Personalism: Its Logic, Development, and Promise / Edition 1

by Peter H. Spader

Overview

Peter Spader has written a magisterial study on Max Scheler, one of phenomenology's earliest and greatest figures, whose theory of ethical personalism has become a major voice in the formulation of phenomenological ethics today. Spader follows Scheler's use of the classic phenomenological approach, by means of which he presented a fresh view of values, feelings, and the person, and thereby staked out a new approach in ethics. Spader recreates the logic of Scheler's quest, revealing the basis of his thought and the reasons for his dramatic changes of direction. This remarkable study provides a framework that allows us to understand Scheler's insights in the context of their dynamic evolution of his thought. It corrects imbalances in the presentation of his ideas and defends Scheler against key misunderstandings and criticisms. In short, Spader's work continues the process of developing Scheler's pioneering theory of ethical personalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823221783
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Series:	Perspectives in Continental Philosophy , #25
Edition description:	3
Pages:	527
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter H. Spader is Professor of Philosophy at Marywood University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	List of Abbreviations	xv
Part 1	Introduction
1	Introduction	3
	Prelude	3
	The Promise of Scheler	4
	The Problems of Scheler	8
	The Task of This Book	13
	An Abstract of This Book	15
	A Note on Quotes	19
Part 2	The Challenge of Kant
2	Kant's Rational Formalism	23
	Introduction	23
	Kant's "Copernican Turn"	23
	Kant's Approach to Rational, Formal Ethics	26
	Kant's Kingdom of Ends	31
	Scheler's Initial Objection to Kant's Formal Ethics	33
	Kant's Challenge to All Nonformal Ethics	41
	The Requirement of Noncontingent Values	44
	The Requirement of Noncontingent Feeling	44
	The Requirement of the Noncontingent Person	45
	Summary	46
3	Values and Phenomenology	48
	Introduction	48
	Values and Phenomenology	49
	Scheler's Phenomenological Approach	51
	The A Priori	54
	The A Priori and the Phenomenological Given	56
	The Immediately Given versus the Nongiven	57
	The Order of Givenness	58
	The Immediately Given versus the Mediately Given	60
	The Immediately Given's Independence from the Senses	62
	The Obscurity of the Phenomenological Given	67
	Autonomous Values	68
	Phenomenology as a "Procedure of Seeing"	71
	The Phenomenological Given and Kant's Rationalism	77
	Summary, and Transition to a New Problem	78
4	Feelings	80
	Introduction	80
	Scheler's Manifesto	82
	The Complexity of "Feelings"	83
	"Feeling of Something" (Fuhlen von etwas) versus "Feeling States" (Gefuhlszustanden)	84
	"Preferring" (Vorziehen) and "Placing After" (Nachsetzen)	86
	Love and Hate	87
	The Refutation of Relativity	89
	Value Blindness	91
	The Role of Love	91
	The Limited Vision of Values	94
	The Role of Hate	95
	Value Distortion	96
	Ressentiment	97
5	Persons	101
	Introduction	101
	Scheler's Critique of Kant's Person	102
	Scheler's Person	102
	Person as Act	104
	A Phenomenological Description of Acts and persons	106
	The Nondurational Act	107
	The Experiencing of Acts	110
	The Experiencing of Persons	112
	Solving the First Enigma: Why Does Scheler Not Provide Phenomenological Evidence for His Claims about Values and the Person?	115
	The Need for an Ethics	117
Part 3	The Challenge of Scheler's New Ethics
6	Scheler's New Ethics	121
	Introduction	121
	The Hierarchical Ranks of Values	121
	The Moral Good	125
	The Noncontingent Realization of Moral Values	127
	The Person as Bearer of Moral Values	127
	Scheler's Ethics versus an Ethics of Success	128
	Basic Moral Tenor and Deeds	130
	Scheler, Kant, and Utilitarianism	133
	Core Elements of Scheler's Foundations for Ethics, with Practical Problems	135
	Scheler's Practical Ethics	135
	The Uniqueness of Individual Persons	136
	Public and Private Insight	138
	The Model Person	140
	The Tragic Limits of Finite Persons	143
	The Infinite Person: God	144
	Solving the Second Enigma: Why Does Scheler Turn to God after the Formalism, Rather Than Complete His Ethics?	145
	A Change of Direction	147
7	God and Ethics	149
	Introduction	149
	The "Problems of Religion"	149
	The Tasks of Philosophy and Religion	151
	The Nature of God	155
	God as Mentality (Geistigkeit)	156
	The Interrelation of the World and Mental Acts	158
	Creation and Realization	160
	God Is Love and God Is Good	163
	A New Problem: God, Reality, and Evil	165
	The Use of "Metaphysical" Insights	165
	The Distinction between the Real and the Unreal	166
	The Problem of Evil	169
	The Dualism Solution Rejected	170
	Rejection of Human Action as the Ultimate Cause of Evil	171
	The Devil Solution	173
	The Failure of the Devil as the Cause of Evil	173
	Final Comments	175
8	From Theism to Panentheism	176
	Introduction	176
	The Psychological Approach to Scheler	176
	The Suddenness of the Change	181
	Scheler's Comments on the Change	182
	Panentheism	184
	Geist and Drang	184
	The Interaction between Geist and Drang	186
	Scheler's Ethics and the New Panentheism	187
	The Ideal and the Real	188
	The Powerlessness of Geist	189
	Reality, Will, and Drang	191
	Ethics and the Ideal-Real Distinction	192
	God and the Deitas	194
	The Human Person and Deitas	194
	The Problem of Evil Solved	194
	Scheler and Schopenhauer	195
	Scheler's Optimism	196
	New Problems	199
9	The Troubled Relationship between Geist and Drang	201
	Introduction	201
	The Problem of the Powerlessness of Geist	201
	The Interaction Problem	202
	Scheler's Emphasis	202
	The Power of Geist	203
	The Interaction between Geist and Drang	205
	Geist below the Human Person	206
	Defending the Uniqueness of the Human Person	211
	Freedom and Interaction	213
	Geist, Drang, Idealization, and Realization	217
	Resolution of the Third Enigma	219
	The Completion of Scheler's Ethics: The Unfinished Task	220
	New Possibilities	221
Part 4	Defending a Schelerian Ethical Personalism
10	Defending the Central Role of the Person in Scheler's Ethics	225
	The New Task	225
	Introduction to This Chapter	227
	The Tragic Limits of Finite Persons--Again	228
	The Two Ways to God	228
	The Solution to the Problem of the Tragic Limits of Finite Persons	229
	The Problem of a Change of Heart	231
	The Change of Heart	232
	Husserl, Scheler, and Intersubjectivity	238
	The General Problem of Intersubjectivity	239
	Scheler's Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity	239
	The Transcendental Ego and Intersubjectivity	243
	Schutz's Criticism of Scheler's Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity	244
	The Defense of Scheler's Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity	245
	The Possibility of Truly Shared Thoughts	246
	The Question of Whether Persons or Values Are More Important	248
	Scheler and Human Sacrifice	249
	The Primacy of the Person over Values	252
	The Challenge to the Primacy of the Heart	253
11	Defending the Central Role of the Heart in Value-Ception	255
	Introduction	255
	The Primacy of the Heart in Value-Ception	256
	Strasser's Criticism of the Primacy of Feeling	257
	The True Relationship of the Two Logics	258
	Wojtyla's Criticism: Feeling and Choice	258
	Choosing against Felt Values	260
	Choosing Unfelt Values	261
	Free Choice and the Ordo Amoris	263
	The Role of Reason in Ethical Decisions	264
	Von Hildebrand's Criticism: The Subjectively Satisfying and the Intrinsically Important	266
	The Choice of Lower Values	269
	The Values Seen	272
12	Defending Scheler's Knowledge of Values	273
	Introduction	273
	Blosser's Critique of Scheler's Grasp of Values	274
	Blosser's Criticism of Scheler's Practical Ethics	277
	Scheler, Persons, and Children	280
	Criticism of Scheler's Distinction between Moral and Nonmoral Values	282
	The Relationship between Aesthetic and Moral Values	283
	Criticism of Scheler's Placement of Particular Values in Particular Ranks	288
	Criticism of the "Holy-Unholy" as a Separate Rank of Values	289
	Heideggerian Criticism of Scheler's Understanding of the Basic Nature of Values	291
	The Defense of Phenomenology	293
	Scheler and Language	294
	Final Comments	296
	Bibliography	299
Appendix	Secondary Sources on Scheler Published between 1990 and 1999	307
	Permissions	319
	Index	323

Editorial Reviews

Breaks new ground in a number of promising directions, and will surely be viewed as a major contribution to the developing field of Scheler studies….comprehensive and sympathetic, yet without being uncritical.

Lenoir-Rhyne College - Philip Blosser

Spader (Marywood U.) develops the systematic nature of German philosopher Max Scheler's (1874-1928) quest for an ethical personalism that would challenge the rational ethics of Kant. By retracing its steps, he hopes to correct some of the misunderstanding that have grown around it over the years, and show how it can be completed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

....clearly written...a welcome addition to the growing English-language scholarship on Max Scheler...

Choice

Breaks new ground in a number of promising directions, and will surely be viewed as a major contribution to the developing field of Scheler studies….comprehensive and sympathetic, yet without being uncritical.

——Philip Blosser, Lenoir-Rhyne College

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