Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics

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Macmillan, Nov 15, 1990 - Philosophy - 254 pages

In Man for Himself, Erich Fromm examines the confusion of modern women and men who, because they lack faith in any principle by which life ought to be guided, become the helpless prey forces both within and without.

From the broad, interdisciplinary perspective that marks Fromm's distinguished oeuvre, he shows that psychology cannot divorce itself from the problems of philosophy and ethics, and that human nature cannot be understood without understanding the values and moral conflicts that confront us all. He shows that an ethical system can be based on human nature rather than on revelations or traditions. As Fromm asserts, "If man is to have confidence in values, he must know himself and the capacity of his nature for goodness and productiveness."

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Contents

THE PROBLEM
3
HUMANISTIC ETHICS THE APPLIED SCIENCE OF THE ART OF LIVING
8
2 Subjectivistic vs Objectivisric Ethics
14
3 The Science of Man
20
4 The Tradition of Humanistic Ethics
25
5 Ethics and Psychoanalysis
30
HUMAN NATURE AND CHARACTER
38
a Mans Biological Weakness
39
4 Orientations in the Process of Socialization
107
5 Blends of Various Orientations
112
PROBLEMS OF HUMANISTIC ETHICS
118
1 Selfishness SelfLove and SelfInterest
119
2 Conscience Mans Recall to Himself
141
a Authoritarian Conscience
143
b Humanistic Conscience
158
3 Pleasure and Happiness
172

b The Existential and the Historical Dichotomies in Man
40
2 Personality
50
a Temperament
51
b Character
54
The Nonproductive Orientations
62
b The Exploitative Orientation
64
c The Hoarding Orientation
65
d The Marketing Orientation
67
3 The Productive Orientation
82
b Productive Love and Thinking
96
b Types of Pleasure
183
c The Problem of Means and Ends
191
4 Faith as a Character Trait
197
5 The Moral Powers in Man
210
b Repression vs Productiveness
226
c Character and Moral Judgment
231
6 Absolute vs Relative Universal vs Socially Immanent Ethics
237
THE MORAL PROBLEM OF TODAY
245
INDEX
251
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About the author (1990)

Erich Fromm was a German-born American psychoanalyst and social philosopher who explored the interaction between psychology and society. His works include The Art of Loving, Escape from Freedom, and The Sane Society. He died in 1980.

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