A Study Of Fromm 's Theory Of Human' S Existence

The focus of Erich Fromm’s theory is how to walk out of the survival dilemma and find solutions for the modern human being. All of his research throughout his whole life is for the survival dilemma and mentality issues. He inherited and developed Marx’s All-round Development of Humans Theory, summarized people’s living style in capitalist society, analyzed and criticized the modern capitalist society causes the alienation of human nature and morbid personality. From his perspective, the only solution is to shift the living style from "to have" to "to be".Fromm’s theory is directly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis, Zen’s Enlightens and Marx’s humanitarianism and Alienated Labor. The solitude because of the Jewish family background was haunted in Fromm’s head, and he was very sensitive to the tough time in World War. He was inspired by Marx’s correlated statement to form his recognitions of the society and times. From Fromm’s perspective, the philosophy of Marx all throughout was humanism, which was the exact value of Max’s thoughts and logics.and this was the reason of the consistence of the value of Marx’s thoughts and logic. The ultimate object being pursued pursuing by human being is the value of survival. This was the ultimate reason for which regulates the actions of the human being. The essence of the human life is survival. From inherited the survival theory from Marx and dist(?) two kinds of human existing forms-to have and to be. The survival form which emphasize on to have is built by three pillows, which is including the private property, profit and power, which the prerequisites of the survival form which emphasis on to be are independence freedom and critical reasoning. The character of this form is to actively survive and experiencing that the person himself is an active agent of survival.The economy of having-oriented society is featured by being quantitative and abstract. People are in need of lacking any satisfactions in depth, their consuming desire is alienate with their real needs. General election was degraded to blind worship in the political area. People’s choice was influenced by the propagating and advertising. In this society, tangible and open authority was turned to unknown invisible alienated authority. The invisible alienated authority includes profit, economic needs, market, common sense, public opinions, collective action, collective ways of thinking, and feelings of the community. All above stuff have replaced the decree of the visible authority. Active agent was enslaved to unknown authority, subjectivity was lost, convergence was spread, new moral demands people to learn how to lose himself to become part of the group, and forced people to like the situation. In this context, education forces students to acquire more knowledge, Religion was lost the function of emotional relief, and it facilitated labor, property, profit and power become the sacred belief. Instead of the consoling and caring, religions display a hardcore worship toward profits. As a consequence, religions constrain on people’s behavior and maintain the social hierarchies.In order to shift the living style from "to have" to "to be", From the Fromm’s perspective, firstly, reform should be on economic area to set up principles of putting people first and socialist state-owned economy. This would enable the workers’ satisfactions generated from actively participate in working to replace their pursuing of money, reputation, social statue and power. People’s consumption consuming needs should base on human nature in a humanitarian way. Secondly, the reforms on political area emphasize on setting up the people’s predominant role and created the new model of participatory democracy, shifting the bureaucratic management humanitarian management and to create a peaceful world forever. The basic consideration of reforms in cultural area is to boost set up the people’s development. Therefore, its goal is to advance human free and all-around development, and help students transfer passive learning into active thinking, make the education available to people from different ages, which could cover the life time of human being. The survival oriented religion is to help people to surpass their narrow minds and loneliness. Their supreme belief is uniformity of all and their loyalty to life and human nature, this religion is against all kinds of idol warship.In order to transform the living style thoroughly, Fromm’s suggestion is not only for people’s economic, political and cultural improvement, but also the aspect of spiritual outlook, which could achieve people’s potential. This process is a social revolution of new life, new society and psychological change. Therefore, the social character needs reshaping, and make the production mode and social practice which may cause the social differentiation possible to influence the individuals. China is striving to modernization currently. On one hand, the traditional living style is destroyed; on the other hand, it was threatened by consumerism. Fromm’s theory on living style survival is inspiring, it explains how to connect achieving modernization and the traditional good living style, and meantime avoid the side effects of consumerism. What he advocates is more consumption with a stronger correlation with life. This theory facilitates people obtaining satisfactions on production area, and those satisfactions lie on spiritual and cultural area. The scientific outlook on development adopted by Chinese government emphasizes man as the noumenon, and pursuing all round, harmonious and sustainable development. This reflects people’s consciousness on the reform of living style. Of course, we should also be aware of the Fromm’s theory’s interpretation on the current Chinese society.