The concept of functionalization im Max Scheler´s Philosophy

My project intends to determine the main significance, the subsequent meanings and the role of the concept of functionalization in Max Scheler`s Philosophy. In Max Scheler`s view the functionalization is the process through which the essences, as unity of meanings that renders inteligible a class of objects, arrive at being given in the reflexive consciousness, understood and become, lately, forms of knowledge, and so they become the basis of all future experiences of the soul. An analysis that traces this concept throughout the entire work of Scheler is missing, nowadays, from the specialized literature. The evolution of Scheler`s creation moves from the phenomenological analysis to metaphysical construction. Thus, there are three levels at which the meaning of this concept should be examined in reference to Scheler`s work: 1. The "noological" level, where the idea regarding functionalization, developed on the account of the theoretical use of reason, is extended over all types of actions of the spirit, over the emotional, volitive and religious regions, respectively. 2. From the viewpoint of the analysis of culture and sociology of knowledge, through the fact that in Scheler`s opinion, every cultural community must be related to the specific forms of functionalization and to its fundamental intuitions. 3. From a metaphysical viewpoint, through the fact that the entire reality represents a large domain of the functionalization of the Universal Spirit`s content (Ens a se, Geist) within the material reality. The reporting of functionalization with main issues from Scheler`s thought as the concept of "function", that of "regions of consciousness", with the complex emotion-value-person, with phenomenological reduction, with the nature of truth, with the historicity of the Spirit and the dynamics between Spirit and Impuls represent the methodological steps of my research. The theory of functionalization can be also used as a research instrument in its own right for large domains of culture. Thus it can be applied in the field of history of religions research, history of mentalities, history of civilization, sociology, pedagogy.