Max Scheler: the lived body, others, and the ecstatic roots of consciousness

The theme of the specificity of the phenomenological givenness of the Leib and the idea that of the external world we primarily experience efficacy are two salient aspects of Max Scheler’s thought. Scheler makes it clear that what connects the human subject and his milieu (including others) is first and foremost a concrete relationship, not simply a representational one. We do not encounter the world from a kind of level that is as fundamental as it is neutral and through pure representations. Following these guidelines of Scheler’s reflection, this paper focuses on some still fruitful aspects of his perspective: the phenomenology of the Leib, the principle of psychophysical indifference of the Leib and expressive phenomena, the theory of empathy, the idea of the ecstatic matrix of our relationship with the world and the highlighting of the importance of the external world for the understanding and description of our internal states.