20th Century Ethics (Sess 2) - Max Scheler, Goods and Values

This Meetup is the second in our series on 20th Century Ethics.

“It is Kant’s first error to deny that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are non-formal values…clearly feelable non-formal values of their own kind.” – Scheler

For 2026 we will be launching a series of sessions focused on 20th Century Ethics. The series will build progressively over the course of the year, but individual sessions can be explored independently. The goals of the series are to a) move beyond the ‘greatest hits’ of historical philosophical works into more contemporary 20th Century debates, b) create a landscape of the diverse traditions in phenomenology, virtue ethics, critical theory, and neo-Kantianism, c) explore modern issues of identity, communication, justice, and animal rights, and d) stage opportunities to contrast different thinkers critically. While the content is advanced, the format and discussion style still affords individuals new to these works and, indeed, new to philosophy in general an excellent opportunity to learn and discuss in structured discussion-based environment.
The series will include

• (Jan/26) Immanuel Kant – a foundational ‘grounding’ for the series
• (Feb/26) Max Scheler – critique of Kant’s formalism with an emphasis on value theory.
• Emmanuel Levinas – Ethics as First Philosophy and the responsibility of the Other.
• Paul Ricoeur – identity and ethical responsibility with a focus on selfhood and justice.
• Juergen Habermas – socially embedded ethics.
• Alasdair MacIntyre – challenges Kantian universality with Aristotelian virtues ethics.
• Phillippa Foot – naturalistic virtue ethics
• Christine Korsgaard – moral norms and an argument for contemporary Kantian Ethics.
• Onora O’Neill – global justice and bioethics.
• Epilogue for the series – a comparative look at the threads of autonomy, responsibility, virtue and discourse in a comparative roundtable.

In Session 2, ‘Goods and Values’, we will examine the first part of Scheler’s Formalism in Ethics and non-Formal Ethics of Values, which is Max Scheler’s most important work (1916). Max Scheler (1874-1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in ethics and philosophical anthropology. Scheler tries in the work to challenge Kant’s “colossus of steel and bronze” to move us “toward a concrete and evidential theory of moral values, toward the order of ranks of values and the norms based on them”, where values, to Scheler, are qualities that appear in Goods.

I will be using the Northwestern University Press edition (1973). The following sections will be discussed

• Part 1, Introductory Remarks, pg. 5-9
• Part 1, Ch 1: Non-Formal Value-Ethics and Ethics of Goods and Purposes, pg. 9-38
• Part 2, Ch 2: Formalism and Apriorism
• A: The A Priori and the Formal in General, pg. 45-80
• B: The Non-Formal A Priori in Ethics, pg. 81-110

In 2026 we will be recording the sessions to create an anonymized archive summarization of sessions, which will be shared with all attendees. I am truly excited about 2026 and hope that you will participate in the series and help make it a fulfilling experience for all of the participants.

Hope to see you at the session.