Lineamenti per un’ontologia generale della natura e per una teoria biologica della conoscenza : la Biologievorlesung del 1908/1909

This paper is an examination of Scheler’s first Biologievorlesung (1908/1909). After some introductory remarks about Scheler’s interest in the philosophical issues raised by biology, the Biologievorlesung is interpreted as an eidetic analysis of nature, in light of Husserl’s Third Logical Investigation; the paper shows how Scheler, on the basis of this analysis, takes a stand on the controversy between vitalism and mechanism in the philosophy of biology. Much attention is then paid to the theory of knowledge that Scheler develops in this biology lecture, where his later “theory of the three facts” (1910-1911) is largely prefigured. Finally, the paper explains how the Biologievorlesung might be seen as a further confirmation of the ambivalent relationship that Scheler had with phenomenological philosophy.