超過四十年的時間，《Why Can’t We Be Good？》一書書名的問題逐漸改變了社會哲學家Jacob Needleman。每天我們見到人們行為惡劣的案例，也知道他們是用一種他們明知與自己內在深處價值互相矛盾的方法行動。為什麼會發生這樣的事情呢？看這位主流思想家如何著手應付這個核心哲學問題。

This predicament is understood in the great wisdom and religious translations, yet completely missed by almost all who study such ideas. The Hellenic, Judaic, and Christian traditions, as well as other religious systems throughout time, allude to this puzzle that man cannot－in his present condition－allow in that which is good, and also offer the beginnings of an approach to this immense problem. This precious wisdom has been largely－thought not entirely－lost to us today. It is this very thread that Needleman picks up to create a profoundly old and yet startling fresh means of understanding our ethical failures and innermost struggles.

Steely-eyed, yet hopeful, Needleman provides ideas, and even exercises, that can start to show us the largeness of this problem－the problem of our inability to be good－and the precious early steps toward struggling with it. Here is one of the great philosophical considerations of our era, crafted in a manner that speaks to the needs of every sensitive person.

 

Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University, and former director of the Center for the Study of New Religions at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He was educated at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Freiburg in Germany. He has also served as research associate at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and was a research fellow at Union Theological Seminary. In addition to his teaching and writing, he serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business.