人間の現在 --哲学的省察-- (承前、五)

Abstract

We examine the tenets of philosophical anthropology, particularly the seminal throught of Max Scheler. According to his last works the problems of man are the proper concern of all philosophical studies. Man is composed of inorganic matter, impulse and instinct, but he also possesses a spirit acting in contradiction to all other factors. As such, man is free from his surrounding world and can see into the true state of things. "Openness to the world" and "Concreteness" are the essence of spirit. Man's being is contradictory. In Western history, three different types of knowledge--the technical and scientific intelligence of the modern age, the knowledge of essence through phillosphical reasoning beginning with ancient Greece, and the knowledge of Salvation through Christian religiosity.--conflict with each other. Scheler made efforts to bring them into a higher, albeit tense, balance, positing man as a unity of multidimensional beings. But his concept of spirit as "Openness to the world" is onesided as Scheler lacked insight into the interdependent relations of individuum and circumstance. He did not grasp the strict logic of relation either between philosophy and religion or between science and religion.