Fromm's Concept of Marx

...The early papers, Fromm also argues, were never repudiated or significantly modified...

...He must take seriously the Marx who spoke of the "dictatorship of the proletariat...

...The publisher falsely claims on the cover—and Fromm reiterates the error in his preface—that this is the first American publication of selections from the Manuscripts...

...Consider now the following passage, which appears in Marx's German Ideology: "But since the development, the practical activity, the expression of life should be a source of enjoyment and satisfaction, it follows that labor should itself be a development, a maturing of the human capacities and should be a source of enjoyment, satisfaction and happiness...

...Ultimately, the main issue, as Fromm says, is not one of the "young Marx" versus the "old Marx...

...who claimed that the entire bourgeois talk of rights had become "obsolete verbal rubbish...

...Labor must then, become a free expression of life and so a source of enjoyment...

...We are told that the Manuscripts constitute Marx's "main philosophical work," and his "philosophy" is distinguished from his "sociological and economic theories...

...At the time, Marx was still heavily under the influence of Hegel, and his economic and political ideas had not yet fully congealed...

...with the notable exception of Daniel Bell, most interpretations of these papers have been developed by intellectuals trained in Europe: Karl Lowith, Herbert Marcuse, Raya Dunayevskaya, and now Erich Fromm...

...Bottomore's excellent translation, which forms the main part of Fromm's Marx's Concept of Man, will certainly help gain a wider audience for the papers and perhaps a more objective interpretation of Marx's thought...

...Even more objectionable is the "concept of man" that Fromm attributes to the German, thinker...

...In 1947, a translation by Ria Stone appeared, and Miss Dunayevskaya includes a long section as an appendix to her Marxism and Freedom...

...This historical issue is only a preliminary to the explosive political interpretation of Marx's early humanism...

...At the other (including the "official" Russian interpretation), they are denigrated as immature formulations, completely superseded by the later "scientific" doctrines...

...he refers to it in this book, although without mentioning the translation...

...Fromm's humanism is both superficial and "ideological"—in the Marxist sense of the term...

...The pitfalls of Fromm's analysis are equally obvious in his description of Marx's most important concept: labor...

...And insofar as discussion has focused on rival claims for the early and later writings, it has been misplaced...

...Marx's cry throughout is that modern technological society perverts human nature, destroying what is truly valuable and humane...

...Moreover, Marx would never have differentiated his "philosophy" from his sociology and economics, except perhaps to show the superfluousness of philosophy...

...In the original article, the term which appears is "persona" not "person," and Fromm's misquote distorts Bell's meaning...

...In this process of genuine activity man develops himself, work is not only a means to an end—the product—but an end in itself, the meaningful expression of human energy...

...He says of Marx: 'But in saying there is no human nature "inherent in each separate individual" (as Marx does in the sixth thesis on Feuerbach) but only classes, one introduces a new person, a new abstraction.' " Unfortunately, Fromm, who charges Bell with misquoting Marx, has actually misquoted Bell...

...A fair and penetrating analysis of his philosophy must take account of these conflicting themes...

...It is not only a correct reading of Marx that is at stake here...

...But if these assorted unpublished fragments are the cornerstone of true Marxism, then why is it that neither Marx nor Engels (even after Marx's death) ever thought them important enough to publish...

...But selections have been published at least twice before...

...To neglect the other dimension, as Fromm has done, is to rupture the tension that is distinctive of Marx's genius...

...The notebooks, whose character is quite distinct from the rest of the Marxian corpus, were discovered only in the 1920s, and were first fully published in 1932 under the title of The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844...

...Unfortunately, Fromm's introductory essay contains serious misrepresentations and distortions...

...Fromm errs again when he attempts to refute Bell's claim that the "rediscovery" of alienation has led to distortions of the historical Marx...

...This sounds like a pretty good description of Fromm's "productive character...

...In France, the political bankruptcy of existentialism has created a vacuum which is being filled with existential interpretations of Marx...

...Fromm is obviously aware of the latter...

...The most crucial problem for a humanistic outlook today is to state precisely what man is, what he can be, and what he ought to be...

...How seriously are these papers to be taken in interpreting and evaluating Marx's thought...

...In Poland, young intellectuals rebelling against official Marxist-Leninist dogma have used the Manuscripts to forge a new humanistic Marxism...

...Written before Marx felt the need to disguise his strong moral convictions behind the jargon of economic formulae, the 1844 Manuscripts are infused with a passionate humanism...

...But if Fromm is to be consistent with the logic of his own position —that there is really only one Marx —he must come to grips with the "other" Marx...

...Side by side with Marx's humanist pleas and moral fervor, there is also a ruthless, militant and positivistic strain...

...In England, too, the Manuscripts have been a rallying point for a small but vociferous group of intellectual Marxists...

...The only difficulty is that the passage is quoted by Marx as an example of sentimental socialism and is subjected to devastating criticism...

...Something, Marx feels, must be done to reverse the process of dehumanizing man, though what is to be done is not yet clearly formulated...

...hence work is enjoyable...

...Unless we have a clear idea of what goals are to be realized, and know how to achieve them, an absolute humanism, as history has taught us and George Orwell and Albert Camus have told us, can by subtle gradations turn into an absolute totalitarianism...

...Unfortunately," Fromm writes, "Bell misquotes a Marx text which is of decisive importance in order to prove his thesis...

...At one extreme, it is proclaimed that they represent his true humanistic aspirations and overshadow everything else that he wrote...

...It was Marx (and the early Marx too) who said: "When reality is depicted, philosophy as an independent branch of activity loses its medium of existence...

...Here in America, the discussion is still an academic one...

...4.75 Reviewed by RICHARD J. BERNSTEIN Assistant professor of philosophy, Yale University Since World War II, there has been a fresh and intensive discussion of Marx in both Western and Eastern Europe, centered on a series of jottings which he wrote when he was 26 and living in Paris...

...who vehemently attacked some of the very ideas expressed in the Manuscripts when they were expressed by other socialists...

...It alienates man from the objects that he creates, from his fellow man, and from himself...

...We find him speaking in an idiom that seems to have a greater relevance to our situation today than his more famous "mature" doctrines...

...It is less Marx than a pastiche of Fromm's own writings from Man for Himself to The Art of Loving, mixed with the sentimental socialism that Marx so bitterly attacked...

...Fromm writes: "Labor is the self-expression of man, an expression of his individual physical and mental powers...

...Talk of "self-realization" is vacuous and dangerous unless one specifies what "self" is to be realized and why...

...this easy dichotomy won't stand up to critical test...