Conflicting Epistemological Elements in Max Scheller’s Thought

Max Scheler while examining the relationship between human cognition and social contexts along with real and concrete matters, has also considered the ideal elements and values ​​in his analysis and among these, one of his main goals in combining sociological topics with philosophical themes have been to achieve a comprehensive knowledge of man. Despite acknowledging the influence of social factors, Scheler considers the principle of thought to be an independent category that cannot be reduced entirely to the external factors. This is an important point of Scheler, because, he does not make the development of knowledge dependent only on the influence of historical and social conditions, but also on human characteristics. In his view, in a comprehensive view of man, in addition to reason, his emotional and value aspects should also be considered. In this paper, by analyzing Scheler’s phenomenological approach, including in the field of ethics, tries to show how he, by combining different fields, has gone beyond the usual dichotomies and developed the sociology of knowledge. The findings of this process indicate that the whole of Scheler’s intellectual project is an attempt to integrate and accompany areas of human knowledge that at first seems contradictory and cannot be summed up, but with a comprehensive view of man and society.