Formalismus: Max Scheler’s Non-Formal Value Ethics

Abstract

Max Scheler analyses the dominant Kantian formalism in ethics by describing non-formal ethics through ordo amoris. He brought attention to the impoverished conception of ethics by emphasizing rationality at all times and neglecting the emotive part of ethics. Before man becomes ens cogitans, he is an ens amans. There are four values in Scheler, namely the religious, spiritual, vital and sensory values which stratify man’s emotional life. In ordo amoris, Scheler meant to counter the reductionistic tendencies in various ethical theories.

Keywords: ordo amoris, eudaemonism, non-formal ethics