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knowledge is revealed, but it is not given or accessible in immediate sensual perception,nor is it based upon human urges; this knowledge strives for adequation to the essentialknowledge, which is based on the categorical forms of being. After this phase of selfpossessionor askesis, there follows another, a second phase (involving mortification witha view to humility as the proper sphere for self and will). After achieving the defeat ofone’s own egoism, this knowledge leads to a ‘world outlook’ and a view of the world thatmoves within its categorical structures.Die Verdemütung bricht den natürlichen Stolz und ist die moralische Voraussetzung desfür die Erkenntnis der Philosophie notwendigen gleichzeitigen Abstreifens 1) derzufälligen Daseinsmodi von den puren Wasgehalten... 2) der faktischen Verworfenheitdes erkennenden Aktes in den Vital-Haushalt eines psychophysischen Organismus. 7Scheler denied the objectivity of science, hence in his opinion it is tainted with an egoisticdesire to dominate; the fragmentary picture of the world provided by science does not givefull and independent knowledge. In Scheler’s opinion scientific knowledge wants to ruleand not to learn. The fullest knowledge is enabled by love, which here means nothingbeyond the ‘view’ or ‘outlook,’ after which follows the action. “Die Liebe…bricht die imMenschen befindliche Quelle der Seinsrelativität alles Umwelt-seins.” 8 This phase of theselfless view (and the action as its consequence) establishes a new kind of subjectivity --the subjectivity of a person -- and it is distinct from that of a philosopher. A philosopher,according to Scheler, does not cease to be a physical body (Körper) or a psycho-physicalone (Leib), but he or she ceases to gain his or her motivation in an uncritical, simple wayfrom these spheres of existence; in this way, he or she become persons. 9 Through the actof love a person is correlated with holiness which is understood as the fullest sphere ofreality (given to emotions) and which Scheler described rather sparingly as a person’sworth (Wert). Indeed, here is to be found the most primal emotional experience of theworld, of matter; this experience is founded on the experience of unmediated existence,that existence which exists beyond any association with human existence as such.That is what has to be attained, whether in one’s youth or in one’s adult years, throughspiritual exercises and a consistent moral attitude, a possessing of humility and ofgoodwill toward the world, and in old age this can indeed become a gift of maturity; itliberates the human being from the relativity attached to the vital, in a natural way.b. Old Age as a Natural Way for Reducing VitalityThe starting-point for Scheler’s reflection about death is the experience of the individuallife process, which is understood as a realization of possibilities, as a kinesis of life. Inthis Aristotelian paradigm of the world as nature, he holds that:Nicht das Tote ist als Totes ‘primär’ und als Positives ‘gegeben’ und es käme dann‘Leben’ hinzu als das, was amechanisch ist – Rest dessen, was sich mechanisch nicht7Ibid., 90.8Ibid.9See Jaromir Brejdak, “Phänomenologie, Wertethik, Politik,” in Jaromir Brejdak, Werner Stegmaier,and Ireneusz Ziemiński, ed., Politik und Ethik in philosophischer und systemtheoretischer Sicht (Szczecin:AMP Studio, 2003), 86.205