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Title: Self-feeling as the Kairos of 'Gesinnungswandel' in the Ethics of Person of Max Scheler
Author(s): ZHANG, Wei
Journal: Etudes phénoménologiques - Phenomenological Studies
Volume: 5    Date: 2021   
Pages: 199-220
DOI: 10.2143/EPH.5.0.3288756

Abstract :
In this article I describe the role that 'self-feeling' plays in Scheler’s understanding of what it means to become a person or what he calls 'personal salvation'. 'Self-feeling' is what is required for personal salvation 'at the right moment' (kairos). I discuss the backgrounds of the problem of 'self-feeling' as the first step. Then, three meanings of 'self-feeling' are differentiated: (1) 'the pre-conceptual, pre-reflexive, immediate, non-objectified and accompanying' 'self-feeling 1' at the level of epistemology; (2) 'self-feeling 2' as 'an existing feeling' at the level of ontology; and (3) 'self-feeling 3' as a 'spiritual feeling of person' and a 'feeling of one’s own value' at the level of ethics and religious philosophy. I show how 'self-feeling 3', as a spiritual feeling of person or feeling of one’s own value, such as spiritual shame, reverence, repentance, and humility, is ultimately part of the technique (Technik) of personal self-salvation or self-sanctification (Selbstheiligung).

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