Lesson 8

1. Lesson 8 The worker as Creator or Machine --- by Fromm, Erich (1900-1980)

2. Objectives of Teaching • To comprehend the whole text • To lean and master the vocabulary and expressions • To learn to paraphrase the difficult sentences • To understand the structure of the text • To appreciate the style and rhetoric of the passage.

3. Aims • To know the author, Erich Fromm • To learn the writing technique of causation • To appreciate the language features

4. Teaching Contents • 1. Erich Fromm • 2. Causation and the thesis • 2. Detailed study of the text • 3. Organizational pattern • 4. Language features • 5. Exercises

5. Time allocation 1. The introduction of the author (10 min.) 2. Causation and the thesis (10min.) 3. Detailed study of the text (115 min.) 4. Structure analysis (15 min.) 5. Language appreciation (15 min.) 6. Exercises (15 min)

6. Fromm, Erich • German-American psychoanalyst and author • Born in Frankfurt, Germany • Ph.D. University of Heidelbery 海德堡大学 • In 1934, he came to the US, practiced psychoanalysis and lectured at various institutions.

9. Fromm, Erich • As a psychoanalyst, he applied psychoanalysis to social, political, religious, moral activities. He was particularly interested in the study of individual and society. He paid much attention to self human realization.

10. Fromm, Erich • He took views of Freud and he attempted a synthesis (combination) and reformulation (systematical expression) of Freud and Marx.

11. Fromm, Erich • He is also a self-styled Marxist, but his idea is against the theory of Marxism, for he used to view things from psychoanalysis, not from class struggle.

12. His point of view • He held that man is a product of his culture. Social character is not determined by instinct (biological drive) but rather shaped by cultural training. • 个体的人格是文化的产物，而不是生物学的产物。

13. His works • Escape from Freedom 《逃离自由》 • The Sane Society 《健全的社会》 • The Art of Loving 《爱的艺术》 • Psychoanalysis and Religion 《精神分析学与宗教》

14. His works • May Man Prevail 《愿人类成功》 • The Revolution of Hope 《希望革命》 • The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness 《人类毁灭之分析》 • Beyond the Chains of Illusions 《越过幻想之链》

15. His works This piece is an excerpt from “The Sane Society” 1955. In this book, Fromm is mainly concerned with the effect of a sociological environment on Americans which exalts (praise) success through • competition • human alienation

16. that accompanies technological development which isolates the workman from the finished product.

17. alienate –estrange, turn away, set against, disunite, separate, divide Ant.--- unite, reconcile

18. The theme of the text • This text is discussing the workers’ position in the society. The workers are no longer creator but becoming more and more like machine. • It is about men’s attitude towards work. Work has become an alienating factor.

19. The text The change of the meaning of work • In ancient times, work ---- satisfactory, a pleasurable thing • In modern times, work --- a duty, forced labor, The text deals with the reason and result of this alienation

20. literary style • exposition • The main thesis is better expressed in the first sentence of the deleted paragraph “ the meaning of work in an alienated society”.

21. The thesis --- • “He is part of the machine, rather than its master as an active agent.” (para.6)

22. The method • The method the writer uses in the expository writing is causal analysis / causation因果分析

23. Causation • It means something happened is 1) because of sth else 2) as a result of sth. else • In this lesson, the writer explained the reason why man changes the attitude toward work and its effect.

24. Detailed study of the text • Para.1 --- the specific positive values of work

25. Para.1 • What are the specific positive values of work? 1. Work enables human beings to rise from the animal kingdom. 2. Work liberates men from nature and makes them into social beings and work together in a cooperative way.

26. positive values: 3. Work molds and changes nature and himself. 4. Work develops man’s different powers, skills, capacities, personality and creativity.

27. Para.1 • Man is first of all an animal, and he can be differentiated from other animals in that, among other things he produces, he makes tools, and other new things out of the raw materials he finds around him.

28. kingdom --- • all natural objects have been classified into three great divisions • animal kingdom • vegetable kingdom • mineral kingdom

29. He separates …. By becoming nature’s master, by stationing himself above nature, man separates himself from nature. But at the same time he connects himself once again to nature to further conquer her and develop his understanding of her.

30. In molding nature… Man’s abilities and powers as a species, and man’e individual abilities and powers (of cooperation, reason and sense of beauty) increase and deepen as a result of controlling nature and remaking her to fulfill his needs.

31. all are expressions… All the above–mentioned work shows how man has transformed nature thought his reason and skill creatively.

32. Para.2 • detailed description of the meaning of work to man.

33. Work was …satisfaction • The paragraph deals with the subject of craftsmanship. According to Mills and Fromm craftsmanship involves the control of the work process by the individual worker. At its height in the late Middle Ages, it enhanced man’s productive powers and was a source of great satisfaction to the craftsman.

34. C.Wright. Mills • An American sociologist, known as one of the very few outstanding social critics during the McCarthy period.his best known work is White Collar (1951), from which his quotation is taken, and The Power and Elite. He died in 1962.

36. McCarthy American politician. A U.S. senator from Wisconsin (1947-1957), he presided over the permanent subcommittee on investigations and held public hearings in which he accused army officials, members of the media, and public figures of being Communists. His charges were never proved, and he was censured by the Senate in 1954.

37. McCarthy 麦卡锡，约瑟夫·雷芒德1908-1957美国政治家，来自威斯康星州的美国参议员(1947-1957年）。他指责许多军队官员、新闻媒介内部工作人员和公众人物为共产党，并指挥一个永久委员会分会对他们进行调查和公开审判。他的指控从未成立，1954年他受到议会的谴责

38. Why work was a pleasure to man? • Because the worker is free to control his own working action. He is responsible for the whole production process.

39. Why does the writer use a quotation? • to prove his idea in a more direct way • to give a kind of authority to what he says ---- A paraphrase would not provide that directness and authority.

40. What does “There is no split of work…” mean? There is a close relationship between work and pleasure. They go hand in hand. While the worker is working, he enjoys himself. When he is making sth, he learns sth.

41. Para.3 • Background knowledge – why work is a duty? • What’s protestant’s idea about work? • They held that all men are born sinful. They must work hard to purify their souls. God then will take them to paradise after they die.

42. newly won freedom • Freedom from feudal restrictions. The craftsman felt safe and secure in his guild and profession, but became afraid now that he was entirely on his own in a highly competitive society.

43. The outcome … • Early Protestantism maintained that most souls are predestined by birth by God to eternal damnation and a few to be saved after death. But there’s no way that anyone can know which is which. obviously people lived in fear. All one could hope for was a sign from God that he might be among the elect, even though a sign was no guarantee.

44. It was believed that any form of sinfulness was likely indication of damnation, whereas ceaseless work, especially if it resulted in wealth, could be sign of salvation. Clearly, work lost all the intrinsic positive aspects it formerly had, and instead became purely and simply a method to achieve wealth and success.

45. asceticism --- a special term in religion self-denying mode of living • a simple, strict way of life with no luxuries or physical pleasures, which people usually lead because of their religious beliefs.

46. Para.4 • Work as duty, as a means for saving one’s soul exists only for the upper and middle classes. • Work as forced labor is for the laboring people.

47. Para.5 • In capitalist society the worker feels estranged from the work he is doing.

48. modern man … • With work stripped both of its craftsmanship quality and meaning and of its sense of religious obligation, it no longer holds any deep attraction. Therefore, people feel themselves at loss, with no purpose or direction. Life is empty. Work becomes merely a time-filler to escape the emptiness and meaningless of one’s life.

49. This is another psychoanalytic analysis of Fromm. We know the bourgeoisie amassed wealth through the exploitation of worker and the worker were forced to sell their labor in order to survive.

50. something new … • A new ideological driving force for work has replaced the lost ones. The drive is now for more bigger, and better products. Fromm again misses the real point here. Profit is the real driving force of capitalism.