Man is encased, as though in a shell, in the particular ranking of the simplest values and value-qualities which represent the objective side of his *ordo amoris*, values which have not yet been shaped into things and goods. He carries this shell along with him wherever he goes and cannot escape from it no matter how quickly he runs. He perceives the world and himself through the windows of this shell, and perceives no more of the world, of himself, or of anything else besides what these windows show him, in accordance with their position, size, and color. The structure and total content of each man's environment, which is ultimately organized according to its value structure, does not wander or change, even though he himself wanders further and further in space. It is simply filled out anew with certain individual things. However, even this fulfillment must obey the law of formation prescribed by the value structure of the milieu. The goods along the route of a man's life, the practical things, the resistances to willing and acting against which he sets his will, are from the very first always inspected and "sighted, " as it were, by the particular selective mechanism of his *ordo amoris*. Wherever he arrives, it is not the same men and the same things, but the same types of men and things (and this are in every case *types* of values), that attract or repulse him in accordance with certain constant rules of preference and rejection. What he actually notices, what he observes or leaves unnoticed and unobserved, is determined by this attraction and this repulsion; these already determine the material of *possible* noticing and observing. Moreover, the attraction and repulsion are felt to come from things, not from the self, in contrast to the case of so-called active attention, and are themselves governed and circumscribed by potentially effective attitudes of interest and love, experienced as readiness for being affected." –from_Ordo Amoris_.Max Scheler
About This Quote
Orders of Love: 1. The order of the universal love of God is the first order of love. It is the highest and most perfect love, and therefore comes before all other loves. 2. The second order of love is the love between parents and children, husband and wife, and master and servant.
It is a social and moral order based on natural law and divine law. A man cannot be just with God and just toward his neighbor unless he loves his neighbor as himself. 3. The third order of love is the love between brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors, countrymen, or people in general.
This also is a natural order that follows from the order of natural law that governs man's interactions with others. 4. The fourth order of love is the love which man has for himself. It is an imperfect love because it does not fulfill all the requirements for perfect love or for being truly human life.
Nonetheless it forms a basis for human relationships so that men have something to relate to each other on common ground besides mere utility or interest in their own welfare or happiness. This kind of love does not exist without God's commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself, but it does provide a basis for human relationships which are ordered toward loving our neighbor as ourselves in Christ Jesus (Mark 12:29). Thus this kind of love may be called "Christian" -- not in the sense that it fulfills every requirement for Christian life but rather in the sense that it provides a foundation for Christian family life which can achieve its goal only by loving one's neighbor as oneself (Galatians 5:14). 5.
The fifth order of love is our relationship with animals which are our neighbors in nature (Romans 14:20). These could be called "natural orders" because they are founded on natural law -- laws that apply equally to all creatures in nature. Accordingly they are "orders" because they are part of God's creation, not because they are imposed by human beings who have no right to challenge or change God's laws -- laws which are not made by man but by God Himself (Psalm 19:1-6; Jeremiah 10:11-13; Deuteronomy 32:4-44; Exodus 20:11-15; Nehemiah 9:26-32; Job 28:28; Psalm 25:14-16; Isaiah 11:6). 6.
The sixth order of love is man
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