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Psychology or Morality?

A New Definition of Human Nature




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with Manis Friedman and Michael Kigel   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
Rabbi Manis Friedman, a noted Chassidic philosopher, author and lecturer, is dean of Bais Chanah Women's Institute of Jewish Studies.
Michael Kigel is the producer of Passages and Messages, two weekly television shows entering their eleventh year of broadcast on CTS (Canada). He is also the Dean of the Jewish Leadership Program at the Lauder Business School in Vienna.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Nov 12, 2008
To Ari
You make the common mistake of equating watching your health with morality. To eat to much or not to, whether or not to smoke, these are not moral questions. They're questions of good sense. Someone who doesn't have morals is not an idiot; they're immoral. It is about right and wrong, even where the person suffers as a result. Rabbi Friedman makes a great point when he says that for a human to be undisciplined is unnatural.
Posted By Shmary

Posted: Nov 11, 2008
A couple of questions
I can understand that this would have significant relevance to a psychologist but is this lecture relevant to me? Even if a person has a code of morality, how can that person follow that guideline?

Take for example, an overweight person who has been told by a doctor to go on a diet. If that person really likes food it won't matter how unhealthy he is or the food is, put him in a room with a cuisine of a selection of tasty food-stuffs and no people in the room for the thirty minutes and the average person with the above characteristics will probably not be able to withstand his animalistic tendencies that can even tell him to not eat the entire table and only taste a few dishes. The average person will make the bad decision. Or even take the doctor that told the person not to eat that meal.

If that doctor is a smoker will his telling his patient to maintain his health restrict the doctor from smoking that cigarette?

How is this lecture relevant to the average individual?
How can the average individual obey his own code of morality?
Posted By Ari Edson, thornhill, ont



 

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Psychology or Morality?
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