Max Scheler Quotes
Max Ferdinand Scheler was a German phenomenologist and the most important phenomenological ethicist of the early twentieth century. Drawing on but moving beyond Husserl, he argued in Formalism in Ethics and the Non-Formal Ethics of Values that values are objective, intuited objects of feeling rather than constructions of rational will, and that they are arranged in a hierarchy rooted in the person. The quotes below are attributed to Max Scheler, organized by topic.
Browse Max Scheler by topic
Max Scheler on Freedom
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“The medieval peasant prior to the 13th century does not compare himself to the feudal lord, nor does the artisan compare himself to the knight. … From the king down to the hangman and the prostitute, everyone is “noble” in the sense that he considers himself as irreplaceable. In the “system of free competition,” on the other hand, the notions on life’s tasks and their value are not fundamental, they are but secondary derivations of the desire of all to surpass all the others. No “place” is more than a transitory point in this universal chase.”
L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 56
Max Scheler on God
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“The “kingdom of God” has become the “other world,” which stands mechanically beside “this world”—an opposition unknown to the strongest periods of Christianity.”
Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen(1912) | L. Coser, trans. (1961), p. 97
Max Scheler on Knowledge
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“It is peculiar to “ ressentiment criticism” that it does not seriously desire that its demands be fulfilled. It does not want to cure the evil. The evil is merely the pretext for the criticism.”
L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 51 -
“L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 52-53”
Existential envy which is directed against the other person’s very nature, is the strongest source of ressentiment . It is as if it whispers continually: “I can forgive everything, but not that you are— that you are what you are—that I am not what you are—indeed that I am not you.” This form of envy strips the opponent of his very existence, for this existence as such is felt to be a “pressure,” a -
“L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 54-55”
The “noble” person has a completely naïve and non-reflective awareness of his own value and of his fullness of being, an obscure conviction which enriches every conscious moment of his existence, as if he were autonomously rooted in the universe. This should not be mistaken for “pride.” Quite on the contrary, pride results from an experienced diminution of this “naive” self-confidence. It is a way -
“The ultimate goal of the arriviste’s aspirations is not to acquire a thing of value, but to be more highly esteemed than others. He merely uses the “thing” as an indifferent occasion for overcoming the oppressive feeling of inferiority which results from his constant comparisons.”
L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 55-56 -
“L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 55-56”
The ultimate goal of the arriviste’s aspirations is not to acquire a thing of value, but to be more highly esteemed than others. He merely uses the “thing” as an indifferent occasion for overcoming the oppressive feeling of inferiority which results from his constant comparisons. -
“The medieval peasant prior to the 13th century does not compare himself to the feudal lord, nor does the artisan compare himself to the knight. … From the king down to the hangman and the prostitute, everyone is “noble” in the sense that he considers himself as irreplaceable. In the “system of free competition,” on the other hand, the notions on life’s tasks and their value are not fundamental, th”
L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 56
Max Scheler on Life
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Attributed to Max Scheler:
“Man is the only being whose existence is a problem to himself.”
Max Scheler on Love
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Attributed to Max Scheler:
“Love is the discovery of higher worth in another being.”
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“The fake love of ressentiment man offers no real help, since for his perverted sense of values, evils like “sickness” and “poverty” have become goods.”
Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen(1912) | L. Coser, trans. (1961), p. 92 -
“Antiquity believed that the forces of love in the universe were limited. Therefore they were to be used sparingly,and everyone was to be loved only according to his value.”
Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen(1912) | L. Coser, trans. (1961), p. 94 -
“There is not enough love in the world to squander it on anything but human beings.”
As cited in Albert Camus , The Rebel . However the passage is ironic and Scheler's intention was the exact opposite. The full quote reads: "In the first place this love of mankind is an expression of suppressed hatred, a revulsion against G
Max Scheler on Mind
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Attributed to Max Scheler:
“The person is not a thing; the person is the bearer of acts.”
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“When we cannot obtain a thing, we comfort ourselves with the reassuring thought that it is not worth nearly as much as we believed.”
Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen(1912) | L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 73
Max Scheler on Politics
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“Ressentiment must therefore be strongest in a society like ours, where approximately equal rights (political and otherwise) or formal social equality, publicly recognized, go hand in hand with wide factual differences in power, property, and education.”
L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 50
Max Scheler on Virtue
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Attributed to Max Scheler:
“Values are objective and given to feeling.”
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Attributed to Max Scheler:
“Ressentiment is the poisoning of the moral life by suppressed envy.”
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Attributed to Max Scheler:
“The hierarchy of values is intuited, not deduced.”