"Just as love is an orientation which refers to all objects and is incompatible with the restriction to one object, so is reason a human faculty which must embrace the whole of the world with which man is confronted"

Erich Fromm draws a parallel between love and reason, recognizing both as fundamental human capacities with a shared breadth and universality. He posits that genuine love is not a limited attachment to a single object or person but an orientation, an attitude or way of relating to the world as a whole. Love, to Fromm, transcends exclusivity; loving only one person to the exclusion of all others is not true love but a mere attachment. True love is abundant and comprehensive, manifesting as a persistent care, respect, and responsibility toward humanity at large.

Fromm then applies the same logic to reason. He presents reason not as a narrow logical faculty, reserved for specific problems or systems, but as an all-encompassing human faculty. Reason is not truly operative when confined to self-interest or selective domains. Its strength, its authenticity, lies in its capacity to engage with everything that reality presents. Where love opens the heart to the totality of human existence, reason opens the mind to the totality of experience, knowledge, and relationships. To be truly reasonable, a person cannot apply rationality to only a portion of life and live irrationally or uncritically in other domains. Selective use of reason fragments one’s interactions with the world and others.

Both love and reason are holistic orientations, they are about relating fully, openly, and authentically to all that one encounters. Restricting love or reason narrows our humanity and imprisons us within our personal limitations and biases. Fromm’s insight is that the fullest realization of our most human faculties comes only when we transcend restriction and embrace universality. Only then can love foster real connection beyond possessiveness, and only then can reason illuminate the entire sphere of our lived reality. Love and reason become pathways to wholeness, integration, and freedom.