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What can I do to prevent this in the future?

Also by Jacob Needleman.

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Why Can't We Be Good? \t\t?
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We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later. The book has gotten mixed reviews and I understand why -- it's anecdotal, rambling and repetitive. But it's also This book triggered an extreme emotional reaction for me, as though it was chemically changing me. But it's also beautiful and there is something indefinably special about it. Needleman doesn't diagram his point anywhere.

It comes out slowly, in pieces, over the course of the book, and rather in backwards order. I'll try to encapsulate it. There are three areas of moral concern. One kind is "lesser" but primary: People are notoriously bad at this kind of self-improvement as it involves labor and patience. We tend to forget our spiritual exercises. However, we cannot leap from Self to Other, from Thought to Action, so easily. A third kind of morality is needed. This is the work that is never done.

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He variously calls it "intermediate morality" p. It involves enhancing the intellect through philosophical dialogue with others that is sensitive enough to assume the others' question as one's own p. This kind of ethics leads to real ethical behavior in the world. It bridges moral capacity and moral action. The shocks were fake, but the students did not know this.

Needleman observes how, after the experiment, some of the students rationalized their choices almost to the point of denying what they actually did, thus avoiding examining themselves and the demands of their consciences. Prozi, an evil man is one who is utterly incapable of ever seeing the contradiction between his two natures, in whom there never has and never can exist a channel for the voice of conscience. They do not have the strength to be good independently of social pressure.

If they lived in Nazi Germany, they would have been ordered to pull a real switch, and they would have done it. Needleman muses on people who have actually killed: Didn't they too make moral vows; didn't they think they were doing the good? What awesome hypnotic force of self-deception enables us, compels us, to adopt our moral principles in the belief that we will be able to live them, or even to try to live them in our actual lives? Instead, he wishes to recognize the capacity for evil in all of us, based in part on a failure to be honest with ourselves. But if evil is the unexamined life, then how, he asks, can we cultivate a desire to examine ourselves?

One answer is simply to realize that our true happiness lies in examining ourselves lesser morality and successfully recognizing the best way to act intermediate morality.

Why Can’t We Be Good?

But having escaped from prison, what are we to do? Where are we to go? He provides his own definitions of absolutism and relativism in this book. Instead, "we may say quite clearly what the freedom we cherish is for and not only what it is freedom from. The freedom we wish for is strictly speaking the freedom to obey the pure, undistorted moral law handed down to man from 'above,' and since 'time beyond time. Mar 28, An Te rated it it was amazing. Dear Readers, I must write that this is a spellbinding book. Jacob takes us on a journey into his spiritual life and draws superb insights into the nature of humanity and its incapacity to do the things that matter most to us; that is becoming moral and doing what is Good.

His thesis crescendos with the maxim that our sole aim in life is to overcome this 'moral incapacity' and become moral, thus being able to love ourselves, despite our incapacity to obtain Good, and to love our neighbour also. Th Dear Readers, I must write that this is a spellbinding book. The book is a superb tour-de-force of books, compelling conversations across all ages that cut deep into the issues in life that matter.

I was particularly touched by the moral sensitivity of the youngsters he visited in San Francisco. It is here I felt that Jacob's deep reverence for human affection and love of truth shone forth in seeing 'human essence' in these teenagers. I feel we can each impart wisdom to people if we have the hope and the expectation that they can become fully men. It is in this sense that we are truly intertwined with each others lives.

He reasons that they are more alike than they, prima facie, appear. Relativism is at root the moral impulse of a mind and heart that sees the hypocrisy of absolutism - but without deeply recognizing that it is the low state of the being of man and onself that is being seen' p. What is false about fundamentalism is the assumption that this higher source, whether it is taken as inside our outside ourselves, is accessible to us and is ours simply for the asking without the great inner struggle to become fully human selves' p.

What can I do to prevent this in the future?

A quest to discern the philosophical meaning of why we can't be good in a time when we have all the religious and spiritual resources we need to guide us. This book triggered an extreme emotional reaction for me, as though it was chemically changing me. I can't entirely rationally explain why it touched me and .

This is the bridge that we ourselves are not ourselves capable of constructing but involves a deep in-working of faith and commitment to another. It both requires all of us and yet more. Who said building physical bridges was easy? You must consider the surrounding terrain and even possibly summit fallow lands to bridge the two ends. In this sense, building such bridges is challenging work.

Jacob suggests that this is difficult because as we encounter the 'worldview' of another, we must hold the possibility of throwing some of our assumptions overboard. In this attitude of 'volitional suspension,' we can then, and only then, see the other person's position as it truly is. A moving insight is provided over the typical debates had between parties for and against a motion. On many occasions, the individuals are neither swayed in the depths of their convictions for the other parties' position. They have yet to relinquish their hold over their stance. They consider that they have the 'higher ground.

Jacob emphasises this desire for Truth and Knowledge as something which opens a vast wealth of understanding and love for others. This is indeed a beautiful life. It is not without challenges. And, I sense, certainly not for the faint of heart. I feel that Jacob and his words have made a deep impression upon my understanding of my walk as a Christian. I relish digging deeper into some of the works that have shaped this person's mind.

Why Can't We Be Good??
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Why Can't We Be Good? by Jacob Needleman.
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In the words of Hillel the Elder, 'Now, go and study! I started this a couple years ago but only got a few pages. I knew I was not ready for this. A few days ago I thought I was prepared for the deeper effort this study requires, and will continue to require; so I started again and found the depth of practice I have been long seeking.

If you are looking for a challenge, If you want real personal growth, you will find this helpful, not easy, but worth your effort. I will be spending more time with Dr. Needleman's book, as well has those in his aweso I started this a couple years ago but only got a few pages. Needleman's book, as well has those in his awesome bibliography. Nov 08, Scott Carles rated it it was ok Shelves: Jacob Needleman wrote this book by weaving together information and a narrative.

I found the informational aspect of it fairly standard and quite repetitive. I found the narrative flow slightly more engaging. In fact, it's the only thing that kept me reading the entire piece. Needleman uses a philosophy class he teaches as a springboard to develop his thesis concerning why humans "can't" be good.