Abstract

An examination of Max Scheler's theory of the model person from the perspective of his ethical personalism and value theory. The resulting typology of the model person understands ethical obligation to be personal and not necessarily formal with its radical reinterpretation of the Kantian conception of the apriori. Role models and societal leaders are found to be derivative axiological phenomenon incapable of providing moral guidance consonant with the rhetoric they employ or that is bestowed upon them by their followers