Scheler's Thought Review

Author: Fuchs
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-11-01
Features: Why did Scheler break through and construct in various fields of philosophy and social sciences, and engage in critical reconstruction in philosophy, ethics, sociology, and anthropology after modern times? In my view, every act of Scheler's thought was merely an attempt to clean up the mess of the spiritual order created by the modern Enlightenment movement—whether it succeeded or not is another matter. "Love exists before a person can think or will." This proposition is the core of Scheler's philosophy of man, and without understanding this point, one cannot understand Scheler's entirely new philosophy. Love is a fundamental spiritual act, an irreducible and spontaneous movement. Love and hatred are not feelings about something or something, but rather, a person can love or hate something only because it is perceived to possess definite value when it is not in a state of love or hatred. Love and hatred are unique attitudes toward value objects; they understand value and its hierarchy and, because of value, point to the object itself. Scheler said that love is the mother of the spirit and reason. It is the source from which humans participate in all spiritual activities in the objective world. Without the act of participation (love), humans would be unable to participate in (cognition) events in the world.