The Functionalization of Essential (A Priori) Knowledge: A Close Look at Max Scheler’s Epistemology

The article explores a special mode of the human mind outlined in the writings of Max Scheler under the notion of the functionalization of essential (a priori) knowledge. While the concept of a priori was given its profound elaboration in the writings of Immanuel Kant, Scheler applies it with a number of significant modifications. Along with the a priori of objective reality, which is the mind’s first step in grasping theautonomous world, Scheler comes to posit a species of a priori that is subjective. A person’s exposure to an objective essence exercises a special kind of influence on that person’s mind: what was once an objective a priori is appropriated as a subjective a priori, the thing thought becomes a „form” or pattern of thinking, the thing liked becomes a „form” or manner of liking. „Functionalization” characterizes precisely the mind’s ability to transmute the essential knowledge of autonomous reality into subjective a priori forms of knowing and anticipating that reality. Thistransmutation unfolds on three intuitive planes: that of mean ing which is known, that of value which is perceived or apprehended, and that ofexistence which is encountered in the resistance of objects to the will of the percipient.