Time and Place:New York on March 22, 1962

Abstract: This is the first of two lectures about “Humanism and Barbarism” and discusses humanism against the backdrop of the idea of the oneness of all humans. This idea is deepened by the love for strangers as developed in the Hebrew Bible and its tradition, in Christianity, in Greek philosophy (particularly in Sophokles‘ Antigone), in the philosophy of the Middle Ages and in Renaissance and Enlightenment humanism. By this Fromm tries to give a picture of the idea of humanity, of the oneness of humanity, of each man representing in himself all of humanity, which was the idea culminating in the philosophy of the 18th century. Special emphasis is given to Goethe, who particularly clearly expressed the idea of oneness and spoke in a prophecy that Europe is approaching the age of barbarism. – The lecture (50’) was given by Erich Fromm on the invitation of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association on March 22, 1962, in New York.

The text of the lecture and discussion can be downloaded as a PDF file.

ID in the directory of Erich Fromm’s works (https://fromm-online.org/en/works/original-writings/): 1962p-eng