The “Great Chain of Being” in Scheler’s Philosophy

Abstract

Any attempt to conflate phenomenology and the speculative metaphysics with its “Great Chain of Being”, so aptly labeled by Kant and so admirably pursued through history by Lovejoy, is bound to be a risky venture. Husserl’s critique of Weltanschauung theory has been rightly interpreted as an attack on much of what was traditionally taken as speculative metaphysics. But when the phenomenologist involved is Max Scheler, the difficulties might appear to be more serious, since he seems to combine, with a considerable degree of intention, both propensities: the methodical, analytical style of experience-based phenomenology, and the imaginative, constructive systembuilding of classical rationalistic thought. This is not even to consider the question of whether Scheler’s use of phenomenology, clearly deviant from Husserl’s prescriptions, warrants that formal designation. Suffice it to say that Scheler was an active participant in the phenomenological movement and was markedly influential in its development. His initially transient, and then, in his later years, rather explicit involvement in metaphysics, makes him indeed a rather interesting test case as to the possibility of combining phenomenology and metaphysics, although hardly the last word.¹