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This work is about criticism of consumer society, seen by eyes of Erich Fromm, Zygmunt Bauman and Gilles Lipovetsky. Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980) was German-American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist who was performing psychoanalysis practice for a long time and his thinking was affected by Karl Marx. Fromm was against capitalism, which he perceives like mentally ill, irrational society. The main point of his criticism is that modern consumer society is mainly oriented on ownership which creates its social character. In his opinion people should focus more on living than having. The way of truly being leads through the active way of living. Activity by Fromm means inner activity, a creative use of your own abilities. But for consumer society is typical working for the only one reason, which is a profit. People living in consumer society are powerless, uncertain and full of anxiety and can't use their freedom positively. Fromm compared modern human to a component which is a part of big machine. Zygmunt Bauman (1925) is English sociologist from Poland. Bauman points at transition and changes between modern and postmodern society. For actual society is typical uncertainty of the future. People misses permanent identity, they always have to changing it, depends on what takes advantage at the moment. Current human is full of uncertainty, which is caused by missing authority telling him exactly what to do. Human have to decide often on his own, but he doesn't know if his decisions will be revealed as profitable in the future. Another typical thing for Bauman's today's society is to hunt luck by shopping. People thinks that owning more stuff can make them happier. Gilles Lipovetsky (1944) is a French philosopher and sociologist. According to Lipovetsky we live in the age of emptiness and transience which is associated with decreasing of morale values and individualism. He marks actual society as hyper-consumer. People in this society are shopping mainly for themselves, not for others, to make good impression on others instead of having a good feeling from yourself. Human living in hyper-consumer society tries to get more impressions wants to improve quality of his life, taking care of his health and he wants to be young forever. Lipovetsky says, that today's man is a narcissist, hedonist and cannot stop consuming more. He is being pushed towards by desire of life, which could be found thanks to consuming way of living.
The author makes an attempt to reconstruct profiles of a modern humanist on the basis of statements entangled into the press and social discourse. The starting point is E. Fromm’s conception related to the productive and mercenary orientation that constitute the reflection of the social context of the texts under investigation. While conducting an analysis, the author uses the tools of cultural linguistics such as perspective, point of view, profiling and a linguistic image of the world, as well as the assumptions of axiological semantics.
The main topic of this thesis is to compare the concept of freedom of three major thinkers of the twentieth century – Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm and Zygmunt Bauman. The work consists in an attempt to find differences in approach of mentioned thinkers and in approach in individual fields to which they are classified i.e. psychology, sociology, and philosophy. The work is gradually focused on several aspects of freedom, while the majority of interpretation focuses on the modern form of freedom and finds its credibility for the modern man. The thesis also highlights the main features of freedom and its current ambivalent character. Freedom is interpreted here as a phenomenon which is an essential part of society. The modern age is characterized by a completely different freedom from the previous period and as part of a new society must be explained from a different perspective. Freedom in Freud relates to its interpretation from the perspective of human inborn instincts and biologically conditioned man who is forced to live in a civilized society that restrains him. Freud considers culture to be despotic on one side, full of cultural norms and regulations, which do not allow people to act based on their will. On the other hand he is aware that without certain limits total anarchy would prevail in the world. Fromm to certain extent distances himself from Freud's theory of instinct-driven man, whose naturalness makes him to meet the needs associated with libido saturation, and embeds freedom in the broader social standards and historical coherence. Fromm proceeds from the time since the man was not a single individual to a modern industrial society in which individualism is the main theme and freedom seems to be an ambiguous phenomenon. With the rise of capitalism the man gained freedom to decide but on the other hand he began to feel helpless and alone. According to Fromm man is determined by culture and social motivation drives him. Freedom is possible in a society where every individual and his growth and happiness is primary objective and purpose.
Fromm´s theory is followed by contemporary sociologist Zygmunt Bauman who understands freedom as ambivalently as his predecessor. In a capitalist society almost everyone of us is free, we have a choice of many options, which brings Fromm´s theory is followed by contemporary sociologist Zygmunt Bauman who understands freedom as ambivalently as his predecessor. In a capitalist society almost everyone of us is free, we have a choice of many options, which brings discomfort associated with the act of decision-making. In this sense he has in mind a society that has been in the last few decades radically transformed. When he talks about consumer freedom he thinks of present form of capitalism that was transformed from production stage to consumption stage. So consumer freedom, which depends on market, dominates today´s entire society.