MAX SCHELER’S

HIERARCHY OF VALUES
Prepared by:
GROUP 1 (BSA 1-1)
Subject: ETHICS
PLACE OF BIRTH: Munich, Germany
PLACE OF DEATH: Frankfurt am Main, Germany

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
- He studied PHILOSOPHY at UNIVERSITY OF
JENA under RODOLF EUCKEN

NOTABLE WORKS:
1. Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics
of Values
2. Man’s Place in Nature
SUBJECTS OF STUDY: ETHICS and VALUE
 SCHELER’S PHILOSOHY
• Modern philosophical anthropology
(founded)
• Constitution of the structure of consciousness
• FOUR RANKS OF VALUES • Recognized in the 1920’s
1. Pleasure Values as Europe’s leading
2. Vital Values philosopher
3. Spiritual Values • Accused of adultery in a
4. Holy Values Munich Newspaper

Moral goodness- not primarily an object to be pursued

but a by-product of inclinations or learnings.
 PLEASURE VALUES
Pleasure - a general term for an agreeable feeling of
satisfaction, ranging from a quiet sense of gratification to
a positive sense of happiness.
• Pure satisfaction: The basic human nature
• Pleasant against Unpleasant
Hedonism
- Net Pleasure
• INCOME = PLEASURE
• EXPENSE = PAIN
 Price of Pleasure
- To succeed in the pursuit of pleasure, you have to
focus on the pleasure and not on the effort.

“ In life, keep your eye on the ball.

Focus on the goal – and turn every
effort into a pleasure.”
 According to plato.stanford.edu, “Pleasure, in
the inclusive usages important in thought about well-
being, experience, and mind, includes the affective
positivity of all joy, gladness, liking, and enjoyment
- all our feeling good or happy.
“Pleasurable activities give rise to positive effect, and positive
affect works as a ‘go signal’. This ‘go signal’ enhances activity and if
you are active, you will tend to achieve more than if you are not,”
Ruut Veenhoven, PhD, professor of social conditions for human
happiness at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and director of the
World Database Happiness.
 Vital Values
- Necessary or extremely important for the success
or continued existence of something (Cambridge
Dictionary)
- Values that pertain to life and death, health or
sickness and success or failure. (Max Scheler)
Characteristics of Vital Values
1. Refer to health and disease, life and death
2. It also pursues deeper emotional purposes
3. Involves the mental and the environment that
surround the human being
Example of vital values:
• Rest/ Sleep (physical)
• Human Interaction (mental)

TYPES OF VITAL VALUES

• The healthy
• The unhealthy
• The strong
• The weak
Spiritual Values (values of the person)
VALUES OF THE MIND

• independent of the whole sphere of the body and of the

environment
• grasped in spiritual acts of preferring loving and hating
• discovering meaning and purpose in life and demonstrating
values through behaviors
 KINDS OF SPIRITUAL VALUES

1. The values of beautiful and ugly, the whole realm of

aesthetic values

2. The values of just and the unjust

3. The values of pure knowledge

Abarintos, Ella Joy
Aranda, Erika
Blaza, Aaron Joshua P.
 VALUES OF THE HOLY
• Appears only in regard to objects intentionally given as
“absolute objects.”
Examples: Belief, Adoration and Bliss
• The divine or idols
• Totally independent things and owners, person held to
be holy at different times
• Values that pertain to belief or unbelief, God or other.
• For Max Scheler, a lower value can be sacrificed for a
higher value.
• Historical artifacts bear cultural values, religious icons
bear the value of the “holy.”
• A religious icon is given not only as holy but also as
that which is preferred to the merely useful/vital.
 Good is the value Evil is the value
that is attached to that is attached to
the realization of a the realization of
positive value in a a negative value
sphere of the in a sphere of the
willing. willing.

Good is the value Evil is the value

that is attached to that is attached to
the realization of a the realization of a
higher value in a lower value in a
sphere of the sphere of the
willing. willing.