An elementary question: is there a difference between just doing good and setting a good example? Does one have one obligation to do good, to be decent and another obligation to set a good example, or is "Set a good example" just one way of saying, "Be good"?
Jesus is quoted recommending that one not let one's right hand know what one's left hand is doing, giving alms. If one really lives that way, successfully, one does good but sets no example. Like Kierkegaard, one might even try to project an image of a frivolous person, so as to have more time and energy for the important work.
I think Jesus' saying misses something. With all due worries about pretense and mixed motives and getting "looking good" confused with "being good," there is something to be said for doing good obviously, so that people can navigate by one's actions, can have something to live up to. And I don't think that being obvious about what one does just happens, that goodness guarantees its own transparency.
Posted by shea0017 at May 30, 2005 11:05 PMI'm puzzled by Blogs! I was looking for some poetry and I stumbled serendiptiously into your Blog. You appear to be an academic, a teacher and a parent and to have studied philosophy. You raise some interesting questions and I am puzzled why no one appears to have responded to some of the questions you pose, which must ,on the whole, be rather disappointing for you. Debate,conducted courteously, I imagine would have wellcomed.
Personally, I feel there is a profound difference between "doing" good( if we set aside for a bit what meaning or meanings we can attach to the word "good" and setting a "good example". Exemplars are notoriously difficult concepts to pin down. And I shall have to go now and think about what I really want to say.
Posted by: euan at May 31, 2005 2:09 PMI would have to say that doing good & setting a good example is (in some ways) the same thing. If one does good, then it goes with reason that the people around would see that this individual is doing good. Thus, he/she would be setting a good example.
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