FEELING STATES AND VALUES
Max Ferdinand Scheler
- wrote the Feelings States
- German Philosopher, known for his work in phenomenology
- He developed further the philosophical method of Edmund Husserl (another German
Philosopher who founded the Phenomenology as a philosophical movement)
- It is love, that makes things apparent to our experience and that makes knowledge
possible.
- Scheler writesthat love is “a kind of spiritual midwife” that is capable of drawing us
toward knowledge, both of ourselves and the world.
- At root, to be human is not to be a “thinking thing” as the French philosopher
Descartes said in the 7th century, but a being who loves.
Phenomenology
- is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness
- this attempts to investigate all our inner experience
- has tended to focus on the intellect examining the structures of consciousness, and has
overlooked something fundamental: the experience of love, or of the human heart.
Stratification of Emotional Life
- As a practical basis of emotional intelligence, Scheler's stratifications of emotional life
became the basis in evaluating ethical behavior and optimum personal development.
- He concepts of values are in hierarchy that reflect the stage of one's emotion.
- He presumes in his philosophy the following:
1. Values and immanent emotive experience are co-extensive.
- Scheler's claim is that the correlates of feelings and emotions are values, just as the
correlates of visual perception are colors and audio perceptions are sounds.
- If such qualities are present in a person's world, they tend to be apprehended
2. Values are intuited.
- It means, values are understood by instinct due to human consciousness.
- Values are realized through personal apprehensions of positive (and negative) qualities
discoverable through our own pre-thought.
3. The depth of emotion signals importance (intensity) of value, just as absence of
feeling signals the lack.
- This depth structure found in emotive life correlates reciprocally to Scheler’s formulation
of an upward vertical apriori hierarchy of values as forming the basis of an intuitive ethics
inspired by love.
The two figures below show the correlation of value modalities and the stratification model of
emotive life. Scheler's claim is that these value modalities are constant and unchanging
throughout history, forming a basis for objective non-formal ethics. From lowest to highest
these modalities (with their respective positive and corresponding negative dis-value forms) are
as follows:
● sensual values of the agreeable and the disagreeable;
● vital values of the noble and vulgar;
● mental (psychic) values of the beautiful and ugly, right and wrong;
● and finally values of the Holy and Unholy of the Divine and Idols.
PHENOMENOLOGY OF FEELINGS
- “A sensitive heart is a rich source of ideas” - Nikolai Karamzin
- “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can
see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” Antonio de Saint-Exupèry. The Little
Prince
- “The heart has reasons which reason doesn’t understand” Blaise Pascal
LOGICAL VS AXIOLOGICAL INDIVIDUAL
Logical Individual
● Synonyms
- systematic
- rational
- intellectual
- reasonable
- pragmatic
● Characters
- Lawyers
- Accountants
- Scholars
- Educators
- Academe
● Places
- educational
- institutions
- court
- firm
● Phrases
- logical connection
- logical necessity
- logical opposition
Axiological Individual
● Synonyms
- compassionate
- emotional
- loving
- caring
- altruistic
● Characters
- Parents
- Educators
- Friends
- Social workers
- Clergy
● Places
- school
- home
- church
● Phrases
- Axiological acts
- axiological judgments
- axiological dimensions
VALUES & MORALITY
● Scheler argues that values are not merely subjective preferences or cultural
constructs,but inherent features of the human.
● He posits that values exist independently and objectively, and they carry a
compelling force that influences human actions and judgments.
● Scheler proposes that values can be hierarchically structured, with higher values
having a greater significance and guiding our moral choices.
● Scheler’s theory of morality challenges the prevailing moral relativism of his time by
asserting that moral values have an objective foundation.
● He contends that there are certain universal values that transcend individual
preferences and cultural norms.
● These objective values, such as truth, justice, and compassion, form the basis of
ethical principles and provide a framework for moral reasoning.
● The axiological reality of values exists prior to knowing. Values could only be felt.
Reason could not think values; the mind could only organize values in a hierarchy
after they had been experienced through feeling, not reason.
● Scheler argued that values were objective, unchanging , a priori, and non-formal,
and ranked them, and their opposites (“disvalues”), in a hierarchy of five levels.
● Whenever person preferred a value of a lower rank to a higher rank, or a disvalue to a
value, the result was a “disorder of the heart”
● The human “heart,”or seat of love, accounted for the essence of human existence,
rather than ego, reason, will, or the ability to receive sensory data.
● Like Blaise Pascal, Scheler declared that feelings and love have their own form of
logic, different from the logic of reason.
EMOTIONS & VALUES
● Scheler contends that emotions are not random or irrational impulses but integral
components of our ethical decision -making process.
● Emotions, provide us with immediate and intuitive insights into the values at play in a
given situation, influencing our moral responses.
● Emotions can enhance our moral understanding such that it bring a sense of immediacy
and authenticity to our ethical experiences, allowing us to connect with the values at a
deeper level.
● Emotions serve as a compass, indicating the alignment or misalignment of our actions
with our deeply held values.
RELEVANCE OF SCHELER’S THEORY
● It urges us to consider the deep - seated nature of values, the significance of emotions,
and the complexities of human character.
● Scheler's theory highlights the importance of cultivating empathy, self-awareness, and
ethical reasoning in our daily lives.
● By acknowledging the objective existence of values and recognizing the role of
emotions, we can make more informed and morally grounded decisions.
● This awareness enables us to navigate moral complexities, resolve conflicts, and
contribute to a more just and compassionate society.
1. Acknowledging Emotional Intelligence or EQ as a portal to more ethical behavior and
optimum personal development.
2. Values have true primacy as real inherent qualities discovered in things, people,
situations and the like.
3. Values and immanent emotive experience are co-extensive and intentional.
4. The correlates of feelings and emotions are values.
5. As a value being and bearer of values every person is as unique.
6. Values are emotively intuited by consciousness before it can be fully rationally known or
assimilated.
7. "attractive aid repulsion so pal ape Chedsiegative)
8. qualities discoverable through our own pre-thought, pre-willed acts of preference.
9. Depth of emotion signals importance (intensity) of value.