Review article
ETHICS, PHILOSOPHY OF WAR AND THE EUROPEAN QUESTION: MAX SCHELER IN THE CONTEXT
Goran Gretić
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author looks into Scheler’s philosophy of war as stated in his
work The Genius of War. In the context of Germany during World
War One, Scheler polemicized with various interpretations of the essence and the nature of war, particularly with those that reduce wars to economic or sociological roots, and claimed that the spiritual drive behind the “real” war was only to increase power. The war for him is part of the human nature, but not as a mere struggle for survival but as the struggle for power that maximally exalts, expands and deepens the common and indivisible values of our moral consciousness. The author argues that Scheler’s intention is to glorify war, counter to Kant’s universalism and rationalism. He is particularly dismissive of Kant’s idea of “eternal peace” and all that is linked with cosmopolitanism and pacifism. The author concludes that Scheler’s philosophy is self-delusional.
Keywords
philosophy of war; Max Scheler; Kant
Hrčak ID:
20145
URI
Publication date:
20.6.2007.
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