Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

Daniel Burston (Duquesne University)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1956

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Commentary / Criticism (literary)

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Throughout the ages, there have been two schools of thought on the nature of love. One holds that love is an involuntary passion that springs from an inner sense of lack and thrives on illusions. Plato, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud and Lacan all subscribe to this point of view. By this account, love is “blind”, and therefore the adversary of reason or of the sober realism that characterizes the “lover of wisdom”. The other school, represented by Max Scheler, Martin Buber and Erich Fromm, claims that love includes a strong element of volition, is a creature of abundance and bestows insight that is impossible to achieve in any other way. From this perspective, a truly loving disposition and a truth-loving disposition generally go hand in hand. Therefore, Fromm rejected…

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1923 words

Citation: Burston, Daniel. "The Art of Loving". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 November 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16627, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

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