Introduction

Abstract

Max Scheler’s major work, and the only one he felt he had satisfactorily carried through to completion, is Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik.¹ Here, in various stages of development, we find all of the themes which occupied Scheler’s philosophical attention, as well as his most sustained reflections on the nature of the Person. As the title suggests, the book is a pivotal work. Scheler engages in a lengthy and detailed assessment of the main premises, strengths, and failings of ethical formalism before undertaking his own attempt to formulate an ethic grounded in the intuitive perception of values as real and substantial (materiale) qualities of normative experience.