The Nature of Sympathy

The Nature of Sympathy explores, at different levels, the social emotions of fellow-feeling, the sense of identity, love and hatred, and traces their relationship to one another and to the values with which they are associated. Scheler criticizes other writers, from Adam Smith to Freud, who have argued that the sympathetic emotions derive from self-interested feelings or instincts. He reviews the evaluations of love and sympathy current in different historical periods and in different social and religious environments, and concludes by outlining a theory of fellow-feeling as the primary source of our knowledge of one another.

A prolific writer and a stimulating thinker, Max Scheler ranks second only to Husserl as a leading member of the German phenomenological school. Scheler's work lies mostly in the fields of ethics, politics, sociology, and religion. He looked to the emotions, believing them capable, in their own quality, of revealing the nature of the objects, and more especially the values, to which they are in principle directed.

Author: Max Scheler
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 02/29/2008
Pages: 340
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 8.89h x 6.10w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9781412806879

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2008 pg. 15

About the Author
Scheler, Max: -

Max Scheler (1874-1928) was a professor of philosophy and sociology at the University of Cologne and was best known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology.

Stark, Werner: -

Werner Stark (1909-1985) was a sociologist and economic historian. Among his other books are The Sociology of Knowledge; The History of Economics in Its Relation to Social Development; Montesquieu: Pioneer of the Sociology of Knowledge; and The Fundamental Forms of Social Thought, and The Social Bond.