The inversion of values and the renunciation of desire and love: an investigation through Max Scheler and Wang Yangming

This article investigates and compares Max Scheler’s and Wang Yangming’s analyses of the disorder of the heart as the inversion of values. Both Scheler and Wang affirm an objective hierarchy of values. Scheler proposes that spiritual values are higher than the values of pleasure, while for Wang heavenly principle is higher than desires. An objective hierarchy of values is correlated to the original and subjective moral feelings, such as love. However, there are also cases concerning those whose hearts have lost their original state. Scheler discusses this ‘negative side’ in one’s heart in terms of ressentiment, while Wang describes it in terms of the obscuration (zhe bi遮蔽) of pure knowing (liang zhi良知). This article specifically expounds upon those obscuration factors that connected with value inversions. Furthermore, regarding Wang’s critique, this article further examines whether Daoism and Buddhism are forms of value inversion.