This is part of his larger question regarding crossing the Socratic threshold between thought and action. The whole question, Why can't we be good?, rests on this, not the fact that we may know what is good but what " we do, with painful frequency" is the very opposite (pdf. 7.2). "Ideas . . . are necessary. But they are not enough" (pdf 9.1).
Needleman writes,
we need to make use of the ways and means to be outwardly 'in the street' in our actual lives, while somehow, or to some extent remaining inwardly in the theater of the mind . . . to be in two places at once. . .We need something that is fundamentally unknown to ourselves: to question our lives without inwardly or outwardly holding back from whatever life offers and asks of us. (pdf 10.1)Think about these ideas in relation to our class, the ways in which we are trying to cultivate the habits of mind that lead to the capacity to question ourselves and at the same time we are "in the street," in our bodies, living these ideas in our service. Use specifics from the text and your service to illustrate how this dual experience and what you are learning.
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ReplyDeleteGoodness Gracious
ReplyDeleteI’ve always viewed the concept of “good and bad” to be subjective to the person on the receiving end of the gesture and to the person who perpetrated the act. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa, but it’s rare that a person will genuinely accept themselves as being “bad” when they receive “good” things. On the same concept, a “good” person will cringe at the idea of being considered bad. We develop perceptions of ourselves and expect others to believe it just as strongly as we do, so when that isn’t the case, we are taken aback. I believe that everyone has their faults and shouldn’t be portrayed as necessarily bad, but a victim of making bad decisions. At the same time, “bad” people sometimes do good things and that for me shows that no one is entirely pure evil. "The sin and ignorance of mankind itself and the sin and ignorance of one's own self (93)" Although we often strive for good we make mistakes and I believe that is an important part of developing good, because without an opposite to counter balance the concept of “good”, “good” wouldn’t exist and would instead just be. Living in a world like that, every good deed would become arbitrary and minuscule, causing the world to lose its spark. The mere possibility of being able to be on the scale of good and bad is what makes the world the way it is.