Erich Fromm occupies a special place among the representatives of the Frankfurt School. Throughout nearly all of his creative life he systematically investigated the special problems of man from the standpoints of psychoanalysis, philosophical anthropology and social psychology. At the same time he is one of the most prominent advocates and "modifiers" of the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud. Fromm contributed a great deal, particularly in the period of his activity in the USA, to the conversion of this theory into (...) a sociological doctrine. While still in Germany he received his philosophical baptism in the setting of the Frankfurt School, where he became acquainted with the works of Karl Marx. (shrink)

I should like to begin by removing a misconception to which the title of this lecture may possibly give rise. My concern is not with general propositions regarding certain fairly well-attested human characteristics of the kind to which historians may, from time to time, advert in the course of their work or to which they may appeal in support of the account provided of some particular event or occurrence. I am not myself an historian, and for me to make ex (...) cathedra pronouncements on such topics as these might well seem to constitute an unjustifiable intrusion upon a field about which I am not qualified professionally to speak. My subject lies within the sphere of philosophy of history rather than of history proper; it belongs, in other words, to a branch of philosophical inquiry, and as such relates, not to empirical facts and events of the sort to which the practising historian addresses himself, but to those assumptions, categories and modes of procedure that are, or are believed to be, intrinsic to historical thought and discourse. In this general context I wish to discuss two approaches to the problem of elucidating the character of historical knowledge and explanation. Both of the approaches I have in mind have achieved a considerable measure of support at the present time; they have also been widely understood as offering profoundly divergent — indeed, diametrically opposed — views of what is central to the structure of historical thinking and to the type of activity upon which the historian is essentially engaged. It has on occasions been suggested that what — amongst other things — divides adherents to the views in question is the fact that they are committed to radically different conceptions of the subject-matter of the historical studies; that is to say, of human beings and their activities. In the light of this fundamental disagreement, it is argued, many of the more intractable controversies that have arisen concerning the concepts and interpretative schemes in terms of which it is possible or legitimate to treat the human past become readily intelligible. In what follows I want to examine this claim. First, however, let me give a brief, and necessarily somewhat crude, outline of the two positions I have referred to, starting with one that is often described as ‘positivist’. (shrink)

Collected lectures on philosophy, society, and Indian culture.

Renaissance concepts of man: The Arensberg lectures: The dignity of man. The immortality of the soul. The unity of truth.--The Renaissance and Byzantine learning: Italian Humanism and Byzantium.--Byzantine and Western Platonism in the fifteenth century.--Wimmer lecture: Renaissance philosophy and the medieval tradition.--Appendix: History of Philosophy and history of ideas.

What is unique about China is the agreement on all sides that men are naturally equal. This is the second of our two central themes. ...

This book maps the entire development of Comenius’s considerations on man, from his earliest writings to his philosophical masterwork. Although this book primarily offers an analysis and description of the conception of man in Comenius’s work, it may also serve the reader as a more general introduction to his philosophical conception. The author shows that, in spite of the fact that Comenius has received no small amount of academic attention, funded studies or monographs in English language remain in single figures. (...) Thus, a range of Comenius’s remarkable ideas are still unknown to the wider public. (shrink)

Subtitled "A Study in Comparative Philosophy," the concept of man in Greek, Jewish, Chinese, and Indian cultures is briefly outlined.--W. L. M.

Lullus' conception of man is expressed in his definition of man as "animal/ens homificans". It is based on the augustinian understnding of being and is articulated in his dctrine of correlatives, determinig triadically every substance, consisting of the ability of activity, the active and the activity. Thus evry substance is understood as a substantial relation. From the definition of man as "animal/ens homificans" it results that the man creates himself throuhg activity, vhich brings him closer to the abstract essence of (...) his species, namely in his striving at moral perfection. Thus he humanizes the whole universe, aiming at the the human unity and the unity with the universe. This interpersonal aspect is embodied in a modified definition of man as "animl homificans interpersonale propter animam rationalem suam". (shrink)

Classical mechanics is based upon a mechanical picture of nature that is fundamentally incorrect It has been replaced at the basic level by a radically di erent theory quantum mechanics This change entails an enormous shift in our basic conception of nature one that can profoundly alter the scienti c image of man himself Self image is the foundation of values and the replacement of the mechanistic self image derived from classical mechanics by one concordant with quantum mechanics may pro (...) vide the foundation of a moral order better suited to our times a self image that endows human life with meaning responsibility and a deeper linkage to nature as a whole.. (shrink)

The following papers are contained in this book: "Renaissance Concepts of Man: 1) The Dignity of Man; 2) The Immortality of the Soul; 3) The Unity of Truth" ; "Italian Humanism and Byzantium;" "Byzantine and Western Platonism in the Fifteenth Century;" "Renaissance Philosophy and the Medieval Tradition" and, finally, "History of Philosophy and History of Ideas." All of the essays have been made public, although, to my knowledge, only the last four papers ever appeared in print. The fourth and fifth (...) papers have been published but without footnotes. In his Preface, Professor Kristeller indicates that "the second three essays, in describing the Byzantine and medieval backgrounds of Renaissance thought, offer a supplement to my first Torchbook, Renaissance Thought in which the classical sources of Renaissance thought are discussed." The last paper appeared in the Journal of the History of Philosophy. (shrink)

Plato did not write any systematic essay on man. The analysis of a human being as such was not among his primary interests. It was rather the relationship between the man and the society and the world. Regardless to the Plato’s fragmentary statements about man, his anthropology can be identified. The paper gives an outline of Plato’s vision of man on the basis of his dialogues in the light of corresponding commentaries. This enables him to show the validity of Platonian (...) ideas for contemporary philosophical anthropology. According to the author this validity consists in the resolution of he question of human dignity, as well as in putting stress on the ethical dimension of politics and economy. (shrink)

Includes the best and most complete English translation of Marx's controversial Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 by T. B. Bottomore. Fromm in his introductory essay argues that Marx's philosophy of man is to be found in these manuscripts; it is a "spiritual existentialism in secular language." Fromm skirts some difficult problems of Marxist interpretation, and the concept of man that is attributed to Marx resembles the sentimental socialism which Marx so bitterly attacked.--R. J. B.

Ernst Cassirer: Scientific Knowledge and the Concept of Man by Seymour W. Itzkoff is currently one of the few books available in the English language that discusses the philosophy of twentieth-century German philosopher Ernst Cassirer. Itzkoff's study brings Cassirer's perspective directly into the contemporary debate over the evolution of human thought and its relationship to animal life. Further, Itzkoff places Cassirer directly in the context of recent philosophical thought, arguing for the importance of his Kantian perspective, a significance that (...) is amply vindicated by the current interest in Cassirer's ideas. For this second edition, Seymour has written a new introduction and has added a new retrospective essay. (shrink)

In this book, the most thorough account of Marx's theory of alienation yet to have appeared in English, Professor Ollman reconstructs the theory from its constituent parts and offers it as a vantage point from which to view the rest of Marxism. The book further contains a detailed examination of Marx's philosophy of internal relations, the much neglected logical foudation of his method, and provides a systematic account of Marx's conception of human nature. Because of its almost unique concern with (...) helping readers understand Marx's unusual use of language, Alienation has proven very popular in university courses on Marxism on both undergraduate and graduate levels. The first edition was widely reviewed, and in this new edition Professor Ollman replies to his critics in 'More on internal relations,' published here as Appendix II. In addition to this new appendix the author now provides a more systematic discussion of Marx's theory of ideology, elements of which were formerly dispersed throughout the book. He also attempts to set the treatment of political alienation within the broader framework of Marx's theory of the state as a model of how an approach based on internal relations can be used to integrate various apparently contradictory interpretations of Marx's views. (shrink)

A provocative new view of Marx stressing his humanist philosophy and challenging both Soviet distortion and Western ignorance of his basic thinking.

The problem of man is one of the most urgent of our day. Man is a product of history. His consciousness is shaped by the concrete historical experience of humanity. These principles of the Marxist-Leninist teaching on man have had the most substantive kind of confirmation in contemporary analysis of the problem of the relation between the social and the biological. In his biological features man is a part of nature. The social aspect has to do with his suprabiological sphere, (...) and is transmitted from generation to generation through different channels than the genetic information inscribed in molecules of DNA. (shrink)

Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien. The skeptical consequences of the psychologist and historicist thinking prevalent in the intellectual climate of the beginning of the twentieth century made it impossible to establish morality, religion and other humanistic sciences on an absolute foundation. Husserl saw in this situation factors which were causing real illnesses of the human spirit. It is the thesis of this work that Husserl, though well-motivated by the best humanistic intentions, fails to furnish an (...) adequate cure for the ills of the human spirit. He fails because his phenomenology lacks a metaphysical foundation and because the aim he has in mind - to remedy the sickness of the human spirit - cannot be attained through the power of human reason alone. In St. Thomas Aquinas we find a more adequate remedy for curing the sickness of the human spirit because of a metaphysically sound doctrine on man and the absence of a purely - this-world orientation in thought. The conclusion of this work is that St. Thomas' thought is the more adequate one to respond to the Husserlian problem of the human spirit's sickness. Contents: Husserl's Humanistic Intent as Expressed in Philosophie als Strenge Wissenschaft - Husserl's Humanistic Intent in Die Krisis de europaischen Wissenschaften - Husserl's Concept of Science Compared with the Aristotelian-Thomistic one - Husserl's Understanding of Essence in Comparison with that of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas - Norms and Objectivity in Husserl and in St. Thomas Aquinas - Husserl's Concept of Human Being and his Lack of a Metaphysical Foundation in Comparison with St. Thomas - The Self-Sufficient Nature ofConsciousness in Husserl - The Sense of Human Life According to Husserl and St. Thomas.". (shrink)