Scheler’s Theory of Intersubjectivity and the General Thesis of the Alter Ego

Abstract

In order to make Scheler’s theory of intersubjectivity and its role within his philosophical thought fully understandable we must glance at his concept of a philosophical anthropology. It is outlined in an essay called “The Place of Man in the Cosmos,” ¹ one of the last papers published in his lifetime, to serve as a prelude to two never finished volumes on anthropology and metaphysics. Here Scheler develops a scheme of five interrelated levels of psychical existence in the world, i) The lowest one is characterized by an emotional impulse ² without consciousness, without even sensations and perceptions. This kind of psychical existence is not directed towards a goal although it indisputably shows certain tendencies. The vegetative life of the plant takes place exclusively on this level, but the human being also participates in it, e. g., by the rhythm between sleep and waking. In this sense, sleep is the vegetative state of man. The second form of psychical existence is that of instinctive life.³ Instinctive behavior is meaningful as it is oriented to an end; it is performed rhythmically; it does not serve the individual but the species; it is innate and hereditary; it is independent of the number of attempts which have to be made in order to succeed, and therefore it is, so to speak, ready-made from the beginning.