Legacies of Max Scheler

Max Scheler (1874-1928) was a figure of enormous philosophical prowess and versatility in the intellectually fertile atmosphere of a growing phenomenological movement. It is a testament to Scheler that the question of where his legacy resides remains an open, or at least a multivalent, one. Some consider Scheler's key significance to be as a Catholic thinker and critic of Kantian ethics, represented best by his early value theory, ethical personalism, and phenomenology of love and intuition, individuality and community. The first half of this collection explores Scheler's phenomenology and value theory.

A full picture of Scheler's significance and influence cannot exclude, however, his expansive, cross-disciplinary work: his wide-ranging metaphysics of spirit and life, including his groundbreaking contributions in philosophical anthropology, the sociology of knowledge and culture, philosophy of existence, evolution, God, time, and death. He offers a process-oriented theology, portraying the human and divine striving and developing together throughout history in unique solidarity. The second half of this collection explores Scheler's anthropology and metaphysics.

This volume brings together contributions from scholars in North America and Europe that either engage Scheler's work in relation to another thinker or philosophical tradition or further solidify the integrity between Scheler's early and later thought. The chapters herein attest to the legacies of Max Scheler: the philosopher who was never a mere “thinker” but always also a deep lover—that is, the philosopher who, with consistent loving regard, saw the value of every being.