Karol Wojtyła reads and interprets Max Scheler

The present article addresses Karol Wojtyła’s “encounter” with Max Scheler’s thought, expressed mainly in his work Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die Materiale Wertethik (Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values). Three stages can be clearly distinguished: (1) first inspirations, which came about in particular as a result of contact with Rev. Ignacy Różycki, Jacek Woroniecki OP, and Roman Ingarden; (2) the duration of work on the habilitation thesis, which was based on Scheler’s above-mentioned work; and (3) further application of the philosophical findings. Wojtyła concluded that Scheler’s ethical system was unfit for scientific interpretation of Christian ethics. The reason was that the German philosopher focused almost exclusively on the emotional sphere and did not discern the person’s causal sphere. In a case like this a person is incapable of realizing values, and can only feel them, as a passive subject. However, inasmuch as Christian ethics is based on the thesis whereby man is the agent of the ethical good and evil of his own acts, perfecting himself through ethically positive values, and devaluing himself through negative ones, Scheler’s concept is absolutely unacceptable to Wojtyła. Still, Wojtyła discerned an eminently positive aspect in Scheler’s approach, namely, the very method of the phenomenological analysis of ethical facts on the phenomenal and experiential levels. Moreover, by attempting a certain integration of classical metaphysics with phenomenological analysis, Wojtyła – in a peculiar and creative way – developed his own philosophical position.