Didactics of values. The philosophy of St. Augustine of Hippo and Max Scheler as a theoretical substratum for an adequate pedagogical orientation in the teaching of values

Abstract

Max Scheler's theory of values, the protagonist being one of the best-known theories of this German philosopher, interpreted in this study because of the intimate relationship that is shown between pedagogy and the very method that teachers use as a starting point to illustrate Scheler's theory. In this sense, it is shown that, at present, there is the problem of a difficulty in teaching ethical truth and religious values in the different teaching-learning processes, proposing -then- the thought of St. Augustine of Hippo as a nuclear and rich base to facilitate these pedagogical processes with respect to the transmission of values. The Doctor of Grace's theory of thought is established as the starting point and guiding thread of this study, which specifies that thought is prior to language, and therefore the word, being only a sign of thought itself, reduces the learning of values to the moment in which the human soul understands the reality of the thing signified. In this way, the link between Augustine's thought and Scheler's theory of values is perfectly connected to concepts of gessinnung, and ordo amoris, as it serves to clarify a phenomenological methodology through which Scheler's thought of values explained on the basis of impeccable tools and methods.