Franciscanum (Jan 2015)
En torno a la esencia del poder. Un estudio comparativo entre Max Scheler y José Ortega y Gasset
Abstract
Ortega’s admiration for Scheler ’s renowned and distinctive way of thinking can be contrasted with his harsh criticism of the relationship between life and war presented in Der Genius des Krieges und der deutsche Krieg (1915). «Life» is not just the struggle for growth and power. It is also characterised by believing and trusting in the permanence of things, in the capacity of disassociating oneself from nature and of taking refuge in our own intimacy and in our will for transforming nature from a world drawn from imagination. The development of Scheler ’s arguments will allow us to redefine life through the action of a principle that overcomes it: that of the «spirit». With his latter statements, several aspects of Ortega’s criticism are overcome. A matter of comparing and contrasting both philosophers’ view on the specificity of human life thus emerges. Our purpose is to approach this issue with the notion of «power».
