Max Scheler
Max Scheler (1874–1928) was a German philosopher who developed phenomenological accounts of values, emotions, personhood, and human nature.
Phenomenology: A philosophical approach that describes structures of experience as they appear to consciousness. Scheler adapted phenomenological description to emotional life, values, and persons.
Value theory: The study of the nature, kinds, and ordering of values. Scheler argues that values are objective and can be apprehended in experience.
Edmund Husserl: A German philosopher and founder of the phenomenological movement. Husserl’s phenomenology supplied Scheler with a method he applied to values and emotion.
Philosophical anthropology: The philosophical study of human nature, embodiment, agency, and place in the world. Scheler helped establish it as a distinct field through his account of spirit and life.
Martin Heidegger: A German philosopher whose work transformed twentieth-century phenomenology and ontology. Heidegger engaged Scheler’s account of human existence while developing a different analytic of being.
Axiology: The philosophical study of value, including what makes things good, desirable, or significant. Scheler treated values as objective contents disclosed through feeling.
Value ethics: An ethical theory that evaluates action by reference to values rather than rules alone. Scheler makes value-ranking the basis for moral preference and action.
Kantian ethics: A moral philosophy grounding duty in rational principles that can hold universally. Scheler challenged Kant’s formalism by arguing that concrete values are directly experienced.
Helmuth Plessner: A German philosopher and a major figure in twentieth-century philosophical anthropology. Plessner developed a related anthropology while extending and revising Scheler’s approach.
Nicolai Hartmann: A German philosopher known for realist metaphysics and a layered account of reality. Hartmann shared interest in objective values but developed a distinct realist system.