Hong’s Cave

I guess it will be a while yet before I’d be able to not think about this subject all the time. I’ve been tackling another Erich Fromm, Man for Himself for some time now (too busy at work). It’s supposedly about “ethics,” but so far it’s mostly about “characters” and stuff. I think his later works are getting too specific and less interesting to me…

Anyway, a subject of “love” came up when Fromm was discussing “character” (I hope I got these terminologies correct). His “love” seems to be somewhat different from what we are usually familiar with. Especially, he seemed to be trying to separate “lust” or “passion” from it. To him, “love” (actually, I think he called it “productive love”) requires four things: care, responsibility, respect and knowledge.

They all sound reasonable requirements. But my still “young” heart tells me that it needs some thumping, physical attraction, beside those. What do you think?