Implosion of Humanity. The Biological Catastrophism in Max Scheler’s Philosophy

This paper presents a stream of German philosophy which reached heights of popularity in the first thirty years of the twentieth century, and which is associated with the names of Ludwig Klages and Theodor Lessing. It is known as biological catastrophism or panromanticism. The latter term is derived from Max Scheler. The article is mostly focused on his interpretation of the biological catastrophism. Klages and Lessing argued that humanity follows the path of destruction. They wrote that the main cause of the decadence of man was mind (spirit). It is the spiritual mind which was responsible for man’s weakened vitality. The human mind invented ever new measures: philosophy, religion, art or science, but nothing will prevent us from the final defeat; unless you rediscover the importance of some vital characteristics. Some historians of philosophy believed that the philosophy of Klages and Lessing was an ally of the nascent Nazi Germany. The author of this paper attempts to verify this claim.smraube@wp.plKatedra Bioetyki i Antropologii Filozoficznej Uw