Editing Max Scheler (section)

===Material value-ethics===

Values and their corresponding disvalues are ranked according to their essential interconnections as follows:

# Religiously relevant values (holy/unholy)
# Spiritual values (beauty/ugliness, knowledge/ignorance, right/wrong)
# Vital values (health/unhealthiness, strength/weakness)
# Sensible values (agreeable/disagreeable, comfort/discomfort)<ref>Max Scheler, ''Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values'', trans. M. Frings and R. Funk (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), 104-110. Concerning the status of values of utility, Manfred Frings lists utility as higher in value than sensible values. (Cf. Frings, ''The Mind of Max Scheler'', 29-30.) However, Scheler's list of the rank of values in the ''Formalism''  does not list values of utility as an independent self-value, but as "consecutive values" of sensible values (104). 

In ''[[Ressentiment (Scheler)|Ressentiment]]'', Scheler writes, "It is true that enjoyment can and should be subordinated to higher values, such as vital values, spiritual values of culture, 'sacredness.' But subordinating it to utility is an absurdity, for this is a subordination of the end to the means. Cf. Scheler, ''Ressentiment'', trans. Lewis Coser et al. (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2003), 108.</ref>

Further essential interconnections apply with respect to a value's (disvalue's) existence or non-existence:

* The existence of a positive value is itself a positive value.
* The existence of a negative value (disvalue) is itself a negative value.
* The non-existence of a positive value is itself a negative value.
* The non-existence of a negative value is itself a positive value.<ref name="ReferenceA">Max Scheler, ''Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values'', trans. M. Frings and R. Funk (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), 26.</ref>

And with respect to values of good and evil:

* Good is the value that is attached to the realization of a positive value in the sphere of willing.
* Evil is the value that is attached to the realization of a negative value in the sphere of willing.
* Good is the value that is attached to the realization of a higher value in the sphere of willing.
* Evil is the value that is attached to the realization of a lower value [at the expense of a higher one] in the sphere of willing.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Goodness, however, is not simply "attached" to an act of willing, but originates ultimately within the disposition (''Gesinnung'') or "basic moral tenor" of the acting person. Accordingly:

* The criterion of 'good' consists in the agreement of a value intended, in the realization, with the value preferred, or in its disagreement with the value rejected.
* The criterion of 'evil' consists in the disagreement of a value intended, in the realization, with the value preferred, or in its agreement with the value rejected.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>