Author(s): John Bradshaw

Personal Development

This hugely ambitious book walks right into the middle of current controversies about public and private morality. Bradshaw is appalled-as are so many-by the greed and lack of caring that plague the world today. He knows, too, that many people feel rudderles-wanting to do right, but surrounded by a society that sells a "get yours" philosophy on every corner. Is the only answer a return to traditional rules-based morality and an idealized past? Bradshaw says no. Instead, he shows that each of us has what he calls an inborn moral intelligence, an inner guidance system, that can lead us - if we know how to cultivate it in ourselves and others. His fascinating discussion ranges from the ancient Greek philosophers through his life-long study of human development to the most recent discoveries of neuroscience. Examples of "magnificent moral moments" drawn from history and literature are inter-woven with revealing personal stories, illustrating both the heights of human ethical behavior and the difficulty of acting on what we know to be right.What emerges is a clear vision of a morality grounded in childhood, educated by the practice of both traditional and modern virtues, and culminating in a moment-to-moment ability to "do the right thing at the right time for the right reason. " Just as Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence gave us a new way to understand being smart, John Bradshaw is offering us a new way to understand being good. The landmark book is both a powerful appeal to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature," and a concrete guide to building a life of integrity step by step.