Max Scheler's doctrine of politics and the state in the light of his axiology

The purpose of the study is to consider the question of the value conditionality of these phenomena in the philosophy of the German thinker. The German thinker developed the doctrine of emotional-sensory apriorism, through which in contemplation the self-givenness of phenomena is "caught", and in experience the realization of essential relations is carried out. His axiology is a complex hierarchical system with vertical and horizontal connections, where four levels of "value modalities" are distinguished: sensory, vital, spiritual, sacred values. Being objective and universally significant phenomena, they prescribe rules and norms, assessments and obligations. Political and moral behavior is derived by Scheler from the highest destiny of man – to implement objective values in the world, independent of the subjectivity and arbitrariness of people. Politics is the desire for power, consciously directed and controlled by ideas and values. It obeys the order of values that is characteristic of a people in a certain historical situation. Political and moral behavior are mutually exclusive. Politics deals with the vital values of the state and the people, and not with individual happiness. Its priorities are the vital existence of the whole and its freedom. The state is the common will of the cultural totality of the nation's personalities, founded in their actions, but existing independently. Its main task is to ensure the development of a specific culture of the society with the help of the authorities on the basis of general legal norms. As a result of the analysis of Max Scheler's teachings on politics and the state in the light of his axiology based on the phenomenological approach, the scientific novelty of the study was revealed, which consists in clarifying the role and significance of axiology for the concepts of politics and the state developed by Max Scheler.