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Dustin Habecker

Professor Boran

ENGL135

April 1, 2008

Critical Analysis of “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”

Erich Fromm, who wrote “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” has precise

opinions on obedience and disobedience. To write a great essay, the terms must be clearly

defined, it must be logical, the author must be aware of his/her audience, and the information

must be used fairly, accurately, and have significance.

For many years, authority figures have told us that obedience is required and that we would

be punished for disobedience. With Adam and Eve, disobedience exalted them from the Garden

of Eden, but that act began human history, as we know it. According to the prophets, the term

history refers to the time when men actually become humans. The myth of Prometheus is like

that of the Adam and Eve myth, with disobedience as the underlying theme. Man’s evolution is

possible by his ability to be disobedient to authority figures. While our technology is in the

present, our minds are still stuck in the Stone Age, which may cause us to wipe out the earth. He

is not stating that all obedience is bad and all disobedience is good. There is a relationship

between the two, heteronomous and autonomous obedience. Additionally, there are two types of

conscience, authoritarian and humanistic. Rational authority is okay because it is used during a

crisis and has reason. Man is fast to obey because he is not blamed for anything, the authority

figures are. Another reason why man is so quick to obey is almost everything is ruled by the few.

In this time, the only thing that may determine whether there will be a future for us is obedience

and disobedience.

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In this essay, Fromm uses many words that most people wouldn’t know, but never explains

what the words mean. One example is “messianic,” found in the beginning of the third

paragraph. I would have to guess that it has to do something with the messiah, but the tense is a

little odd. I am still not sure what it means. However, terms he introduces, such as

“heteronomous obedience,” he explains more in depth. He describes the difference between that

and it’s opposite, autonomous obedience.

Honestly, I have not seen any logical fallacies in Fromm’s essay. If you count the Adam and

Eve, Prometheus, and Antigone stories as logical fallacies, then I would not know what to call

them. All I know is that all of those stories are made up, so they really are not good examples for

Fromm to build upon. He explains that “rational authority is rational because the authority,

whether it is held by a teacher or a captain of a ship giving orders in an emergency, acts in the

name of reason which, being universal, I can accept without submitting.” I agree with that last

passage from his text.

I believe that Fromm is aware of his audience. Also, I think that his audience is pretty much

anyone who will read the essay. He never really mentions or implies any specific group of

people besides humankind itself. In fact, he talks in third person most of time. He only speaks in

first person when he is evaluating any stories or quotes.

As far as interpreting information, he does a great job. I would interpret all of his information

the same as he did. However, using accurate information must not be his favorite thing to do. As

I have said before, he uses fictional stories to defend his points on disobedience, obedience,

autonomous conscience, heteronomous conscience, rational, and irrational authority.

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I think that the writer had many good points, but he was excessively repetitive. He said two

or three things throughout the essay, but he repeated the hell out of them. The essay could have

been scaled down to the types of obedience, the types of conscience, and an example or two. In

addition, his stories about Adam and Eve and Prometheus are not that credible because those

things never happened. Other than the repetitiveness, I thought the essay was done well.

Overall, the essay was well written and well researched. The author was mostly successful in

achieving his purpose for writing this essay.

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Work Cited

Fromm, Erich. “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem.” Writing and Reading

Across the Curriculum. Ed. Behrens, Lawrence and Leonard J. Rosen. 10th ed. New York:

Pearson, 2008. 402-406.