Despite the aphoristic versatility which mark Scheler's work from a methodological viewpoint, it is a commonly agreed upon practice to distinguish in his productivity three periods, which follow from the writings themselves. The first period ends about 1910, in which he was primarily occupied with Kant and Rudolf Eucken, who was his teacher at Jena. He is also increasingly interested during this first period in Nietzsche, Dilthey, and Bergson. Besides his Dissertation and Habilitation (the latter is something like a second doctoral dissertation required in German universities to receive the rank of "Dozent," corresponding to something like associate professor in America), the following are the main works of this period: Das Ressentiment und Moralisches Werturteil, Versuche einer Philosophie des Lebens, Zur Rehabilitierung der Tugend, and some treatises in vol. X ( Nachlass), as well as other works published in vol. I. In his second period of productivity, 1910-1921, Scheler wrote the following major works: Zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Sympathiegefühle und Von Liebe und Hass ( 2nd ed. as "Wesen und Formen der Sympathie"), Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die Materiale Wertethik, Vom Ewigen im Menschen, and some treatises of vol. X. This period is characterized by applied phenomenology. Scheler's last period shows an increased tendency to emphasize the notion of "Drang" and "Trieb" (urge and drive). In many respects, Scheler breaks with previous opinions, especially with respect to religion. In the preface of Die Wissensformen und die Gesellschaft, 1925, he speaks of deep perturbations (Erschütterungen) in his religious ideas, which have developed during the past 5 years, and in the preface to the third edition of the Formalismus, 1926, he speaks of fundamental changes of opinion in the question of absolute being, emphasizing that one could no longer call him a theist in the traditional sense of that term. Many other valuable signs and hints to his change of thought during this period are contained in Scheler's speech: Die Formen des Wissens und die Bildung ( IX, 73-182, esp. footnotes), and Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos. In Philosophische Weltanschauung he has reached a point of almost daring formulations of a dynamic panentheism, in which the spirit, by itself impotent (ohnmächtiger Geist), and the strong urge (i.e., Drang, a word for which there is no adequate English term) are the two constituting factors in man and God, man becoming the place of deification. (M.F., 1997, pp. 6-7)
wondering if Scheler ever read about psychoanlaysis? (2020-1-31)
