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?