評論
打印
The Worker as Creator or Machine
工人是創造者還是機器
Erich Fromm
埃里克弗羅姆
Unless man exploits others, he has to work in order to live. However primitive and simple his method of work may be, by the very fact of production, he has risen above the animal kingdom; rightly has he been defined as "the animal that produces." But work is not only an inescapable necessity for man. Work is also his liberator from nature, his creator as a social and independent being. In the process of work, that is, the molding and changing of nature outside of himself, man molds and changes himself. He emerges from nature by mastering her; he develops his powers of co-operation, of reason, his sense of beauty. He separates himself from nature, from the original unity with her, but at the same time unites himself with her again as her master and builder. The more his work develops, the more his individuality develops. In molding nature and re-creating her, he learns to make use of his powers, increasing his skill and creativeness. Whether we think of the beautiful paintings in the caves of Southern France, the ornaments on weapons among primitive people, the statues and temples of Greece, the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the chairs and tables made by skilled craftsmen, or the cultivation of flowers, trees or corn by peasants-all are expressions of the creative transformation of nature by man's reason and skill.
人只要不剝削他人，就得靠勞動來求生存。不論其勞動方式是多么原始，多么簡單，僅憑從事生產性勞動這一事實，就足以使人超出動物界。把人定義為"從事生產的動物"是很有道理的。但對于人來說，勞動不僅是必不可少的生存條件。勞動還使他從自然界中解放出來，成為一個不依附于自然界的社會的人。在勞動過程中，即在模鑄和改造其自身以外的自然界的過程中，人也模鑄和改造了他自己。人由征服自然、駕馭自然才最終達到超出自然的境界，并進而逐步增強了自己的協作能力、思維能力和審美能力。他將自己從自然界，從自己與自然結成的原始統一體中分離出來，同時又以主人翁和建設者的身分重新與自然相結合。人的勞動方式越進步，其個性特征也就發揮得越充分。在塑造和改造自然的過程中，人逐步學會了如何充分利用自己具有的各種能力，增進自己的技藝和創造性。無論是法國南部洞穴中的美麗繪畫，原始人所用武器上的紋飾圖案，希臘的雕像和神殿，還是中世紀的教堂建筑，能工巧匠制作的桌椅，乃至農民培育出來的花木五谷等等--這些無一不是人利用自己的思維能力與技藝創造性地改造大自然的具體例證。
