"Western Marxist" theorists have not left us a systematic and unique ethics consistent with their philosophical views, but it is an indisputable fact that they have extensively set foot in the field of ethics. Moreover, many of their ethical views had a great influence in the 2th century, and in a certain sense, they even influenced the course of human history in the 2th century. When people sort out the achievements in ethics in the 2th century, they can't be bypassed anyway.
among the various ethical viewpoints of western Marxist theorists, the most outstanding ones are those of Fromm, Marcuse and Reich concerning love and sex, namely, Fromm's ethics of love, Marcuse's ethics of love and Reich's ethics of sexual desire. Here, we will mainly comment on these ethical views.
1. Fromm's "Love Ethics"
nbsp; Fromm studied love and founded "Love Ethics". He touted his "love ethics" as a knowledge that human beings must master. People are most interested in his "love ethics", which has been widely spread in the following three aspects:
First, his exposition on what love really is.
He asked people such a question: Is love an art? If so, then you must have some knowledge and make some efforts to get love. Perhaps, love is just a pleasant feeling, and it is just a matter of chance to experience this feeling. Who can "fall in" when they are lucky? He himself replied that today, most people agree with the latter statement, while he himself is based on the former one. He insists that love is an art, and his famous saying is: "Love is an art." [1](P1)
Because he thinks love is an art, he thinks it needs to be learned. He complained that people prayed and longed for love, but put almost everything else above love, success, fame, money and power-people spent all their energy learning how to achieve these goals instead of delving into the knowledge of love. He said: "We don't need to learn how to give love, which leads to the fallacy of this hypothesis that we can't tell the difference between' falling in love' and' falling in love for a long time'" [1](P4) and "any theory about love must start with a theory about people and human existence" [1](P8).
in his opinion, the important feature of love is initiative. When we love someone, we are actively and constantly caring for the person we love, not just staying with the person we love. He said: "Love means actively going deep into others, and the combination achieved by going deep has calmed my thirst for knowledge", "Love is action and the embodiment of human ability" [1](PP24-25) and "Love is the only way to learn" [1](PP35-36). I give love, I show myself, I blend in with others, from which I find myself and discover myself. In his view, since the important feature of love is initiative, love cannot be replaced by others, and love must be experienced by oneself. He said: "Love is a purely personal experience. No matter who you are, you can only experience it by yourself." [1](PP122-123)
He pointed out that love is to enthusiastically affirm the essence of others and actively establish relationships with others, and it is a mutual combination on the basis of maintaining their independence and integrity. Although love breaks down the wall that separates people and makes people blend in harmony, love still makes people be himself and still stand in its integrity. He said: "Love is the unity with someone or something outside of oneself while < P > maintaining the separation and integrity of self." [2](PP166-167)
He believes that love is an end in itself, not a means. He said: "The only importance of love lies in itself", "Love is the self-expression of human beings and the way to give full play to human strength" [3](PP143-144). He distinguished childish love from mature love and thought that only mature love is true love. He said: "The principle of childlike love is:' Because I am loved, I love'; The principle of mature love is:' Because I love, I am loved' ","The love of childish love claims:' Because I need you, I love you'; Mature love thinks:' Because I love you, I need you'. [1](PP45-46) From here, he further concluded that mature love, that is, true love, is first given, and he put forward such a famous proposition: "Love is essentially giving rather than getting." [1](P25)
In his view, loving someone is actually the love for human nature. He also pointed out that only through love can people understand others and the whole world. He said: "People understand the world mentally and emotionally through love and reason." [2](P165) He specifically explained that man's rational power enables him to grasp the essence of things through the dynamic contact with the object, "the power of man's love makes him break down the wall separating him from others and understand others" [2](P165).
secondly, his analysis of all kinds of love.
an analysis of brotherly love. Fromm is a pan-lover. He advocates loving everything in the world. In his view, if a person only loves a specific object and is indifferent to others, his love is false, and it is just an attachment born of * * *, or an expanded egoism. He said: "To love one person sincerely means to love all people, the world and life." [1](P53) He believes that brotherly love expresses the universality of this love. He said: "All kinds of love originated from the most primitive love, that is, brotherly love." [1](P53) Brotherly love means that people realize that they should be responsible for all people.
analysis of sex. He thinks that sex is often selfish, so he opposes to attribute such a broad love to sex only. He believes that sex is true love only when it is combined with love. He said: "Pleasant sexual enjoyment is rooted in abundance and freedom, and it is a creative expression of sex and emotion." [4](P244) The love between men and women is meaningful only if it goes beyond sex and becomes a kind of love. He also pointed out that people often fail to see an important factor in sex, that is, will. Loving a person is not just a strong feeling, it is a decision, a judgment and a promise. "If love is just a feeling, loving each other forever can only be empty talk" [1](P64). Analysis of maternal love. He regards maternal love as a model of human true love. He emphasized that maternal love is unconditional, and the loved one should not pay any price, as long as it is her child. In his view, the value of maternal love is that it is not eager to be integrated with the loved one, and it can endure the separation from the loved one. Maternal love is love, "love is willing to accept separation and can continue to pour love after separation" [1](P6). It is precisely because of the altruism and selflessness of maternal love that people recognize it as the highest type of love and the most precious emotional bond. But he also explained that, however, it can be said that the mother's love for the baby has not yet reflected maternal love. True maternal love is contained in the mother's concern for mature and independent children. He compared maternal love with sex, pointing out that the essence of maternal love is reflected in the mother's concern for the child's growth, which means that she expects him to be completely independent, which is the essential difference between maternal love and sex. He said: "In sex, lovers become one, but in maternal love, the two sides are divided into two" [1](P59), "Sex begins with separation and finally becomes one; Motherly love begins with unity and leads to separation "[2](P282).
analysis of fatherly love. He emphasized that fatherly love is related to social-economic development, "fatherly love is conditional" [1](P48), and the principle of fatherly love is: "Because you have met my expectations, because you have a sense of responsibility, because you are like me, so I love you." [1](P48) Mother is nature, land and sea, but father does not have these characteristics. However, although father does not represent nature, he represents the other pole of human existence, that is, the world of thought, science and technology, law and order, discipline, experience and adventure. In his view, a mature and truly caring person should have both maternal love consciousness and paternal love consciousness. Although these two kinds of love seem to be in conflict with each other, he said: "If there is only paternal consciousness, people will become stiff and inhuman; If there is only maternal consciousness, people will lose their judgment. " [1](P51)
analysis of the love of faith. In his view, God in mature faith and love is no longer an external force, and man injects the principles of love and justice into his heart, so that he can only express God with poetic language and symbols. He said: "The love of faith is inseparable from the love of parents." [1](PP91-92) If you indulge in the love of blood relatives of your mother, family and nation, and always rely on your father or other authority who rewards and punishments, it is impossible for people to develop a mature love of faith. He said: "The nature of faith love depends on the proportion of paternal and maternal components in religion." [1](P76) In the aspect of fatherhood in religion, we should love God as much as we love our father: if we believe that our father is just and strict, we will choose me as his beloved son; The maternal aspect of religion requires us to love God like a tolerant mother.
thirdly, his discussion on how to love.
Fromm regards love as an art. He thinks that love, as an artistic practice, must have some requirements that are the same as other artistic practices. The first is to have some training. You can never be a master of love just by being happy for a while. The second is to be single-minded, not fickle and fickle like a fashionable lifestyle. "People who love each other should be single-minded and persistent, and they should learn to be close to each other, but not unconventional" [1] (PP 116-117); The third is to be patient. If you want to achieve even a little success on the road of love, you can't do it without patience. The fourth is to go all out. If you don't regard love as a vital thing, you can't learn it well, and at most it will remain at the level of amateurs.
in addition to the above requirements, he also pointed out that there are several elements that must be kept in mind. First of all, we should be concerned, "Love is our active concern for the life and growth of our loved ones. Without this concern, there would be no love" [1] (PP 3-31); Secondly, responsibility. "Responsibility in the true sense is an absolutely voluntary behavior, and it is my positive' response' to other people's demands" [1] (PP 31-32); Thirdly, respect, "respect can only stand on the basis of freedom" [1](PP32-33), and respect means no deprivation. I hope that my lover will develop in his own way, not to serve my interests; Finally, knowledge, as an element of love, does not refer to the general knowledge that remains on the surface, but goes deep into the core and touches the inside story. "Concern and responsibility without knowledge guidance are blind, but knowledge that is not motivated by concern is empty" [1](P33). His conclusion is: "Concern, responsibility, respect and knowledge are the common elements of all types of love." [1](PP3-31)
The above are the most striking points of Fromm's love ethics. People usually associate Fromm's ethics of love with Feuerbach's "religion of love". They think that he hopes to reach the realm of brotherhood in all the world by spreading the holy water of love like Feuerbach, and even call him "contemporary Feuerbach", and criticize Fromm by quoting Engels' famous saying that criticized Feuerbach: In this way, the last revolutionary point in his philosophy has disappeared, leaving only an old tune: Love each other! Regardless of gender, regardless of rank. .
There are famous sentences describing the 24 solar terms university.
Heavy snow and rain make the creation look good. -Fang Hui's Dawn on the Red Shore
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