Can a Schelerian ethic be grounded in the heart without losing its head?

Philip Blosser

pp. 251-268

in: Thomas Nenon, Philip Blosser (eds), Advancing phenomenology, Berlin, Springer, 2010

Abstract

A dominant assumption throughout the western tradition is the primacy of logos over pathos, reason over appetites, rational understanding over sense perception. Logos confers order, while pathos inherently tends toward disorder. We find this in Plato. We find it in Kant, where Scheler refers to it as rational "constructivism." Scheler rejects this classic dualism – but only to re-invoke it under the principle of the primacy of the heart. Scheler, too, distinguishes between logos and pathos, between reason and the emotions. Reason offers access to the world of logic. Emotions offer access to the world of values; and, for ethics, it is values that are decisive. Scheler thus retains the distinction but inverts the priority: he rejects the classical view that emotions are primarily an impediment to reason in favor of the romantic view that emotionality is inherently superior to reason.

Cited authors

Plato