Erich Fromm: to the roots of ethics

Abstract

The article is focused at Fromm's nonreligious, psychologically conceived interpretation of the Jewish-Christian tradition on two potential life directions of any individual. Fromm's separation from religious practice was simultaneously compensated by an attempt to create a new, unreligious rewording of the tradition of his nation, which in many aspects stayed close to the content of Jewish tradition. It is for example apparent in his differentiation of the biophilious and necrophilious orientation of a man. A man who doesn't sensibly unfold his relation towards the world in active biophilious manifestation remains underdeveloped and his unfulfilled yearning for fulfillment in life is easily turned in a destructive direction.