Max Scheler (1874–1928) was
an early 20th-century German Continental philosopher in the phenomenological
tradition. Scheler's style of phenomenology has been described by some scholars
as ―applied phenomenology‖: an appeal to facts or ―things in themselves‖ as
always furnishing a descriptive basis for speculative philosophical concepts.
One key source of just such a pattern of facts is expressed in Scheler‘s
descriptive mapping of human emotional life (the ―Stratification of
Emotional Life‖) as
articulated in Emotional Life‖) as articulated in his
seminal 1913–1916
work, Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values
First,
Scheler seems to be making a case in favor of what we might refer to today as
Emotional Intelligence, as a portal to more ethical behavior and optimum
personal development, similar to the ancient Greek concern for promoting
virtuous character. However quite unlike many of our modern attitudes and
prejudices, emotional life ought not be viewed as simply a
chaotic impediment to reason, but rather should be understood as a sort of
―sixth sense‖ having an informative objective core: what
Scheler termed our Ordo Amoris (or ―Logic of the Heart‖).
Second, for
Scheler values have true primacy as real inherent qualities discovered in
things, people, situations and the like. Values and immanent emotive experience
are co-extensive: ―the plain fact is that we act vis-à-vis values just as we do
vis-à-vis colors and sounds. Scheler's claim is that the correlates of feelings
and emotions are values, just as the correlates of visual perception are colors
and audio perceptions are sounds. If such qualities are present in a person's
world, they tend to be apprehended. But the reverse is also true: the meanings
ascribed to things, people, situations and the like are uniquely co-extensive
with the subjective relativity of every person, as the "totality of acts
of different kinds having a unique qualitative direction and destiny. As a
value being and bearer of values every person is as unique as a snowflake. This
is why Scheler's ethics is commonly referred as a Material Value-Ethics as
opposed to a formal ethics (Immanuel Kant).
Third,
values are emotively intuited. The whole of "something" is intuited
by consciousness before any of the parts can fully be rationally known or
assimilated. Common expressions such as "ah ha", "love at first
sight," déjà vu or "the cat's pajamas" sum up this basic idea.
Values are realized though personal apprehensions (i.e. "attractions"
and "repulsions") of positive (and negative) qualities discoverable
through our own pre-thought, pre-willed acts of preference.
Fourth,
depth of emotion signals importance (intensity) of value, just as absence of
feeling signals the lack. This depth structure found in emotive life correlates
reciprocally to Scheler‘s formulation of an upward vertical apriori hierarchy
of values as forming the basis of an intuitive ethics inspired by love,
emanating ultimately from the Divine.
Max Scheler‟s Hierarchy of
Values:
•
Pleasure Values -
describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals
experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific
mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and
euphoria.
•
Vital Values - Contemporary mass culture is
such that it now demands that one takes care of their body. The cult of the body
has dominated our actions to such an extent that, oftentimes, the value of a
person is perceived in terms of his or her physical perfection.
•
Spiritual Values - Objectivists mean by
"spiritual values" those values that fulfill the needs of
human consciousness. The word "spirit" indeed refers in
general usage to the human spirit or soul.
The words "spirit" and "spiritual"
refer to real aspects of human experience, namely the mental aspects of human
life.
•
Values of the Holy - Objects of experience
are bearers of values. Historical artifacts bear cultural values, religious
icons bear the value of the “holy.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
PROFESSIONAL TEACHER:
Teaching
is a part of life of a committed teacher. To be an effective teacher, you do
not only possess knowledge of educational theories. You also possess a
willingness to assume your multifaceted roles.