Abstract

Hartmann's axiology is intuitionist like that of Max Scheler and acknowledges ,like Scheler's a hierarchy of ideal values. The two also agree that the primary intuitive consciousness of axiotic traits is emotional. Values themselves are ideal entities entailing laws regarding what ought to be and what ought to be done. The requirements about what ought to be are more likely to come into prominence or exigence for the emotional sense of what is of value when real, temporal things are not as they ought to be or when the way they ought to be is under threat. The human consciousness of time is able to enlarge the sense of what might be of positive value or of negative value, making possible that human beings function as agents, for it also gives rise to awareness of reliably repeatable sequences and of potential means for affecting the chances for such goods and evils. Agents have very limited but nevertheless creative and spontaneous ability to affect, to predetermine the course of events for better or for worse. With no such ability, with no power to predestine no temporal entity however automotive can be other than inert. Inertia, not immobility is spontaneity's opposite. It cannot be clearly conceived that a spontaneous and omnipotent entity, however sublime that may otherwise be thought, might co-exist with another spontaneous entity however severely limited. A moral agent whether a morally good or a morally evil one cannot be such a creature.Ni