ABSTRACT
Franz Brentano's ethical theory is lucidly set forth in his little book, The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, a lecture delivered in 1889 to a circle of lawyers and translated into English in 1902. As the ancient doctrine of the nomos agraphos can already teach, there are laws written into it which correspond to the plan according to which the world, as a world of values, is built up. Max Scheler's philosophical work must be understood as a follow-up of Brentano's successful pioneering. Scheler's main thesis concerning the possible knowledge of God is the assertion that it can only be achieved if reason and religious experience co-operate-if they effect a pincer movement, so to speak. The Philosophical Anthropology which was to outline Scheler's new position was as yet unfinished at the time of his death, but his essay The Place of Man in the Universe Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos, 1927.
