Fromm's The Art of Being
14 December 2024
[The goal of living] can be defined as developing oneself in such a way as to come closest to the model of human nature or, in other words, to grow optimally according to the conditions of human existence and thus to become fully what one potentially is; to let reason or experience guide us to the understanding of what norms are conducive to well-being, given the nature of man that reason enables us to understand.
What is the reason for living? Actually, does it matter? Do we really need a reason to live? Couldn't we accept that man simply wants to live? No, we don't need an explanation for wanting to live. What we all want to live. And we like it.
But, how should we live? Well, the specifics may be different for different people. Perhaps we want love, power, security, pleasure, comfort, fame. But, generally speaking, the thing that we all strive for is happiness. We want to be happy, we have needs and wants, and we wish for them to be fulfilled. Thus, the question of the aim of life leads to the problem of the nature of human needs: what do we really want?
We can look at the nature of human wants from two different perspectives. The first view is that what someone wants depends on who that someone is. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it is good or bad for her, as long as it satisfies her. "I am happy so long as I get what I want." The second view, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. It assumes that humans have a certain nature, and that the aim of life is to develop ourselves fully and as close as we can to this model of human nature. In other words, we want things that make us grow and express our full potential as a unique human being. "I am happy if I get what I want, provided that I want to be as fully human as I can."
The second view leads to another question: how should I live such that I am able to become as fully human as I can? Well the most fundamental problem of the human condition is the problem of greed and illusions. Man has a tendency to take as much as he can, and he will lie to himself about what he experiences if that helps him take as much as he can. Both tendencies block our growth into what we potentially are. Thus, the fundamental goal of living, of how to live, is to liberate ourselves from our tendencies for greed and illusions.
We can think of liberation in two ways. First is inner liberation, which is intimately tied to the optimal development of reason, that is, reason as a mean to know and understand the world as it is, rather than for the purpose of manipulating the world to satisfy our needs. Inner liberation means shifting away from the latter towards the former, to be free of the desire to satisfy our needs. Reason can only function to the degree to which it is not flooded by greed. Someone who is a slave to his greed will be unable to think clearly. He rationalises when he believes he is speaking truthfully. The other aspect of liberation is outer liberation, or political liberation. Liberation in this sense refers to liberation from outside forces, from the domination of one group by another. A modern example is capitalism, where the working class is politically dominated by the capitalist class.
Modern societies understand liberation only in the second sense, of outer liberation. Yes, outer liberation is necessary for full liberation, but this lobsided understanding of liberation is sub-optimal as it can lead to undesirable consequences. For instance, when the liberators are freed from the dominating class, unless they are also liberated from their own greed and illusions, they will simply end up becoming the new dominating class. Political liberation without inner liberation can also lead to the development of hidden "un-freedom". Yes, on the surface, the politically liberated man appears free, but yet she is not truly free, because her inner self is still shackled by greed and illusions. One can argue that outer liberation without inner liberation is more damaging to the individual than no liberation at all, because at least in the latter case she is aware of the outer chains that bind her. A slaved man acting freely is more dangerous than a slaved man acting slavishly.
Total liberation must begin with the understanding of the nature of both outer and inner liberations. Inner liberation is the development of the capacity to reason for the sake of understanding the world rather than manipulating it to satisfy our needs. Outer liberation is the liberation of the individual from the domination of another group. One without the other leaves man dependent and crippled.
Man wants to live, and he doesn't need a reason for doing so. Man wants to live happily, ie. to have what he wants. There are two kinds of wants: subjective wants that depend on the individual, and wants that are conducive to the full development of the individual as a human being. The high way towards full development is total liberation: inner liberation, the optimal development of reason, and outer liberation, the unshackling of the individual from other individuals.