Max Scheler, (born Aug. 22, 1874, Munich, Ger.—died May 19, 1928, Frankfurt am Main), German philosopher. He is remembered primarily for his contributions to phenomenology. His Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values (1913–16) contains a detailed critique of the ethics of Immanuel Kant. In Man’s Place in Nature (1928), he advanced a rather grandiose metaphysical doctrine with affinities to American pragmatism: humanity, God, and world are one cosmic process with two “poles,” spirit and impulsion, or life energy; the ideas of spirit become real through human life and history.
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