Philosophy 2080 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Electric Shock, Virtue Ethics, Stanford Prison Experiment
Document Summary
About fromm in general: was a professional psychoanalyst, is a virtue ethicist, deeply influenced by. I criticized walzer for not spending much time justifying his philosophical perspective. Fromm spends the first hundred pages or so justifying his. First, he points out limitations in the two most influential alternative approaches (instinctivism and environmentalism) and argues that his approach is superior. Instinctivism: human identity is rooted in biology, innate traits, says human violence and aggression is hardwired into our biology. Claims of instinctivism: we have biological aggression from human nature that needs to be released. Because of this, releasing energy in a game is better than in a violent/real life (that is why gta is so popular) Fromm"s claimed limitations: fromm says life is based off passions (which are due to our complex consciousness) and instinctivism does not account for it. In other words, this method gives no thought to human character traits, or self-programming.