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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

202735

Clarification of the phenomenon of love at the metaphysical level of reality

Arthur R. Luther

pp. 41-122

Abstract

As formulated between 1913 and 1923 two factors stand out in Scheler's metaphysical view of reality: the uniqueness of persons in their being, and the unity of the primordial concrete existential situation. As to the first factor, there is a common view or natural attitude in which persons are seen as cores with changeable accidents. Such a view develops out of a thing-mentality in which realities are looked upon as finished or complete in their givenness. Within this thing-mentality the core of persons is the same for all. The term "nature" signifies this core. Persons as persons are the same in this view insofar as they share a common nature. This common nature is and remains "eternally" the same. Scheler rejects this view entirely. A person for him is in no sense a thing, is in no sense given as finished or complete. A person is a center of originality, a creative source, a richness of possibility fundamentally unique. In Scheler's phenomenological view persons are the same in their uniqueness, and this uniqueness is the intrinsic coherence of a dynamic orientation. Persons are irreducible. The being and value of a person is absolute.

Publication details

Published in:

Luther Arthur R. (1972) Persons in love: a study of Max Scheler's Wesen und Formen der Sympathie. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 41-122

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-2796-0_3

Full citation:

Luther Arthur R. (1972) Clarification of the phenomenon of love at the metaphysical level of reality, In: Persons in love, Dordrecht, Springer, 41–122.