max scheler’s phenomenology of love
DESCRIPTION
MAX SCHELER’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE. CONTENTS. WHAT LOVE IS NOT THE ESSENCE OF LOVE MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF LOVE LOVE AND MORAL GOODNESS HIERARCHY OF VALUES SENSORY VALUES VITAL VASPIRITUAL VALUES LUES HOLY AND UNHOLY. I. WHAT LOVE IS NOT. Love exerts no effort - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
MAX SCHELER’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
I. WHAT LOVE IS NOTII. THE ESSENCE OF LOVE
MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF LOVEIII.LOVE AND MORAL GOODNESSIV. HIERARCHY OF VALUES
1) SENSORY VALUES2) VITAL VASPIRITUAL VALUES3) LUES4) HOLY AND UNHOLY
CONTENTS
a)Love exerts no effortb)Love differs from fellow-
feelingc)Love is not directed to
valuesd)Love is not blinde)Love is not relative
I. WHAT LOVE IS NOT
Scripted?Your time is imposed and dictated by someone else?
Love is a spontaneous act and movementPossibility of error?
Rules?
Love exerts no effort
fellow-feeling for someone we do not lovewe can rejoice over A’s
pleasure over B’s misfortuneLove: not a feeling?
feeling is passive or receptive and reactive
Feeling states change but love endures
Despite the pain and grief that the beloved brings, love:does not alterThere is no such thing as
“falling out of love”
Love differs from fellow feeling
Preference and rejection as value-apprehension are founded on our love for the object exhibiting these values
Love is not directed to values?
affords an evidence of its own, which is: not to be judged in terms of reason
Love sees something other in valuesThe beloved is reason
enough or the loverBlaise Pascal:
“the heart has its own reasons which reason itself does not know.”
Love is not blind
1. If Cristy would want to improve Annie’s situation by acquiring a higher value while she was in hell, would this be real love for Scheler? Why? Does changing the beloved to be better means real love for Scheler? Why?
2. There are 4 hierarchy of values (Sensory, Vital, Spiritual, & Holy/ Unholy ) says Scheler. How would you categorize the action made by Cristy and Annie when they decided to go back and experience human life again?
Love = altruism & egoism?Altruism:
Inability to endure one’s company
Egoism:Myself in competition with
othersThe primary orientation of
love is towards :values and the objects to
which these values inhereregardless of whether these
values belong to the self or to others or to a group.
Love is not relative to the polar co-ordinates of 'myself' and 'the other'
a) The opposite of love is not hatred but indifference
b) Love is a movement of intention
c) love relates to what has value rather than to value itself
a) Indifference to the existence or non-existence of a higher value
a) MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF LOVE
II. ESSENCE OF LOVE
hatred like love is: also an act
and a movement albeit in the opposite direction
hatred moves from the higher to lower one.
Love is not hatred
Do we impose?We DO NOT impose or
import our own values when we love another.
lover brings into higher appearance the higher possibilities of value: inherent in the beloved.
Karl Jaspers: “in love we do not
discover values, we discover that everything is more valuable.”
Love is a movement of intention
Love is not limited to human beings:but to anything that bears value, like love of nature, love of art and love of God
When we love nature, we do not love the human projections: we bestow on her but for what she is
Love relates to what has value rather than to value itself
Without this indifference, love can be mistakenly construed as: wishing or attempting to
raise the value of the object loved, to improve the beloved or help him to acquire a higher value.
A desire for: improvement would imply
that there is a distinction between what the person already is
and what he is not yet but ought to become.
Indifference to the existence or non-existence of a higher value
Do we seek for “new” values in the object loved?Love does not desire to change the
beloved, otherwise love becomes conditional.
DELUSIVE FORMS OF LOVE:Loving a person because I have done
so much for himLoving out of habit; because I have
become so attached to the object or person
Loving because I cannot endure solitude
Loving because we have common interests
Loving someone because I am reminded of a past love
Loving because we think alike
MISUNDERSTANDING OF LOVE
Would there be such a thing as love of goodness?Love of goodness is itself evil.
We only love people insofar as they are good
Love has a specifically moral value insofar as: it represents a relationship between persons
III. LOVE AND MORAL GOODNESS
What are values?2 groups of values:HIERARCHY OF VALUES
a) SENSORY VALUES (values pertaining to life)
b) VITAL VALUES (values pertaining to life)c) SPIRITUAL VALUES (values of the
person)d) HOLY AND UNHOLY (values of the
person)5 CHARACTERISTICS BY WHICH A VALUE
IS HIGHER THAN ANOTHER
IV. HERARCHY OF VALUES
Values precede: the experience of feeling-
states and are the foundation of these states and their completion
2 groups of values:Positive values
Existence of positive valuesNon-existence of negative
values Negative values
Non-existence of positive values
Existence of negative values
VALUES
SENSORY VALUESObjects of sensory
feelings, and their corresponding subjective states are pleasure and pain
VITAL VALUESValues connected with
the general well-being.SPIRITUAL VALUESHOLY AND UNHOLY
HIERARCHY OF VALUES
SPIRITUAL VALUESSpiritual values correspond to
spiritual feelingsKinds of Spiritual Values:
a. The values of beautiful and ugly, the whole realm of aesthetic values
b. The values of the just and the unjust
c. The values of pure knowledge for its own sake
HOLY AND UNHOLYValues that appear only objects
given intentionally as “absolute objects”
HIERARCHY OF VALUES
ability to endure through time
Higher values are less divisible
A value is higher if it generates other values and founds them
Depth of contentment or fulfillment accompanies higher values
A value is higher the less it is relative to the organism experiencing it
5 CHARACTERISTICS BY WHICH A VALUE IS HIGHER THAN ANOTHER
Good and evil are not included in the 4 value modalities?Only persons can be
morally good or evil; everything else can be
good or evil by reference to persons
This is so because only person can truly act, prefer, will.
GOOD = VALUES?