Everything Everyone Does is Always Completely Selfish? - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

you somebody says it's wrong I think we should listen respectfully you might have an argument but it should be clear from the beginning that the balls in his court you want to say that everybody's wrong the default position is that you're wrong okay could be that everybody's making mistake could happen but unless you give a good convincing argument than the appropriate conclusions that you're wrong the fact that people have been wrong that everyone has been wrong in the past is no reason to just discard what everyone believes to be true and make it neutral after all think about yourself I suppose you've been wrong at least once or twice that maybe we should just discard everything you think is true because you happen to have made 12 mistakes probably not probably not something that everybody believes is correct someone wants to contestant you should listen respectfully but the burden of proof is on him to present convincing argument now everyone in the world classifies what they do what other people do as either selfish or generous we do that all the time we are proud of ourselves in generous moments and we are distressed with ourselves we do something selfish and we classify and discuss and analyze other people's actions of this in this matter far as I've been able to tell this is cross-cultural it seems like this is a universal human practice someone wants to tell us this is all a gigantic mistake well let's hear a good solid argument now there are people who have tried to say try to defend the idea that everything everyone does is always selfish everything always under all conditions is only selfish that's a very Universal idea that rules out our Universal commitment to classifying actions as sometimes selfish and sometimes generous let's hear what they have to say let's hear what kind of argument they can present now i'm familiar with two arguments and I'll tell you how I would deal with them if you're familiar i left early with i'll be happy to hear doesn't see what we can do about them when argument goes like this the let's call them the cynic cynic says here's i'm going to proceed i'm going to present i'm going to ask you for your best case of an altruistic action a generous selfless action and i'll show you that your best case is wrong i show you your best cases well then of course all the other cases that you could think of are also going to be wrong okay I say I'm willing to take the test it's January third in Chicago the wind sleet index is minus 22 degrees and George is driving along in his car and he sees another car parked by the side of the road with now dating myself historically with a white handkerchief tied to the radio aerial there was a time when people advertise they were in trouble because other people would stop that would never happened today know what stop to be afraid of me shot dead but there was a time when that happened you competed in history books so George stops and he says to the guy what's wrong I don't know guy stopped dead and sleeting and I don't know what to do so George says listen I happen to know something about cars open up the hood they open to do it fools around in there for ten minutes close the hood to start her up turns the key there was a time of you did with keys instead of voice control or something and the car starts up and drives away now George does not identify himself in any way his license plate is covered with snow so that a poor victim couldn't read his license plate he will never be identified by the victim he'll never be paid back for what he did I say to the cynic here's my example I think that was a purely generous action that seems to me this this is a purely generac to their other ones your Universal thesis that everybody always under all conditions does everything solely for his own benefit is simply wrong here's the counter example the cynic says let's examine your case a little more carefully tell me something as George drives away how did he feel how do you feel then you feel some satisfaction you feel good about himself yes something sort of bolstering his self-image his self-respect I have to admit that's probably true he probably does feel good about what he did so the city says and feeling good as a pleasure isn't it I guess so and you feel good about yourself that's Pleasant now says the cynic what would have happened if he'd passed him by how do you judge would have felt he passed him by well I guess he would have felt guilty you know like a CAD I'm generous and unfeeling for someone else's distress right this is the city now tell me when a person feels bad about himself when he feels like he's he's selfish it feels like a CAD isn't that painful and I say well okay so you feel bad about yourself and disappointed it yourself that's painful so the cynics s by stopping and helping a guy he got pleasure had he not stopped and helped the guy you'd have got in pain there you have it he did it for the sake of the pleasure that he got and the pain that he avoided that's selfish stopping to help somebody with a broken car by the side of the road is no different from buying yourself an ice cream cone you do it for the sake of the pleasure and you says the said that you told me it was your best case the best case of a generous selfless action so if I have shown you that even in this case it's selfish you have to admit that all the other cases are selfish as well okay that's a very popular dare I say suffer more very popular argument that people use in this context is the argument clear okay the argument is dead wrong it's dead wrong and what I'm saying that was not cut versatile in philosophical terms the argument confuses a byproduct of an action with the purpose of the action all the arguments shows is that when George stops and helps the stranded driver the effect is he feels good he gets pleasure oh the Seneca shows that had he not stopped and driven on the effect would have been paying that only shows that stopping produces pleasure I failed to stop would have produced pain it doesn't show that that was the purpose of the action to be selfish it's not enough that you get pleasure or avoid pain it has to be that the purpose of the action is pleasure and avoidance of pain and nothing and cynics argument shows that just to make the difference between purpose and the byproduct I hope crystal-clear let me give you extreme example about 10 years ago the Mississippi River flooded it overflowed and flooded on a thousand miles of 1,500 miles it's Beth and cities were swamped and with a lot of loss of property some I don't want to be died but people were in danger of dying I imagine that George lives in Santa Monica he's watching this on television splay those poor people as the river was swelling and coming downstream so then certain cities were building sandbag dikes to try to hold back the water and question whether they would finish in time and he says I can't let them do this and I can't let them do this alone it's in this car and drives for 36 hours to the Midwest five days down from where the Mississippi is at the moment and he joins the crew of people building a sandbag wall against the river he's hauling sand bags to three days till the river gets there I tried back to Santa Monica a couple of months later he's telling this experience that he had to a friend friend said tell me something you were there for three days you're hauling 100 pound bags of sand for three days do you think that that increased your muscular strength so George says yes Oh three days hours and hours of dragging hundred power 100 pound weights I'll bet it did and his friend says that's why you did it you did it to increase your muscular strength it was selfish all the way I hope that's not persuasive um he did get a benefit it's true he did increase his muscular strength but that was not the purpose of his action that was just a byproduct it was just an outcome of the action showing that inaction produces pleasure and avoids pain does nothing to show that that was the purpose of the action that has to be argued further and independently and noting that the cynic is set up until now does that for the job so the argument so far as we have it on the table is a flop are we together I just add a little footnote the reason why the cynic presents this argument is because sometimes the person who defends altruism makes a false challenge for himself he wants to prove altruism how is he going to prove that the person didn't do it for pleasure so the out tourists tries to find the case where there's no pleasure involved none at all it's his no pleasure involved that obviously didn't do it for pleasure so the Senate can say you're not going to accomplish that because whenever somebody sets out to do something and succeeds in doing what he wanted to do there will be a pleasure involved I agree i think that's correct but that doesn't show was the purpose that doesn't show was the purpose so far the cynic hasn't got it here's the second argument it's really a one-liner that's that's cynics use everything you do you want to do you do it because you want to do it even if someone puts a gun to your head and says do this or I'll kill you you want to stay alive that's why you do it maybe you wouldn't have want it to do this how do you have put a gun to you have it once he puts a gun to your head you want to stay alive that's why you do it everything you do ultimately because you want to do it well if you doing it because you want to do it then must be that it's selfish his little test of your understanding this makes the same mistake makes the same mistake because true I do whatever I do because I want to do it but that doesn't identify what the object of the want is what is it that I want may very well be that I want something good for you I do it because I want it but what I wanted something good for you that doesn't make it selfish in the country what I want is something good for you then it's out twisting its generous it's not selfish Derek Parfit who very eminent British philosopher of Oxford who wrote a masterpiece called what matters to volume is fourteen hundred pages which so far I've read twice pretty piece of philosophy answers this argument in one short paragraph he says the word want has two uses at least two and you can illustrate the two uses the word want in the following little dialogue Peter Boyle trying to decide what to do on sunday afternoon Peter wants to come out and climbing Paul wants to play chess so there's a gap between them Peter thinks it over close up all these as you know I've been thinking it over but I've decided what I really want to do is what you want to do and not what I want to do let's try that again what I really want to do is what you want to do and not what I want to do now if he's saying I really want to do what I don't want to do then there's got to be two uses of the word want and the three years is a very simple sometimes want means this won't give me pleasure sometimes want means all things considered this but I have judged that I'm going to do the two entirely different uses of the word want and what Peter is saying to Paul is all things considered I've made the judgment that I want to do what in fact will give you pleasure it won't give me pleasure and that means the want that motivates the action the one that produces the action is not the want for pleasure it's the want as associated with that all things considered judgment and that is not obviously aimed if his own pleasure or his own benefit those are the two arguments that I know of that cynics put in favor of the idea that I we do is selfish and they are flops now where are we now as a logician let's just take stock the Civic has tried to prove his case and failed what do we know now we know nothing the cynic has tried to prove his case in field he might be right he might be have other proof so there might be other clues yet to be discovered that brewvies right doesn't prove that we're right it just means we're in doubt we don't know when the cynics right or whether the natural opinion of all your movies is right at this point we're in ignorance or in a neutral position it's very important because this is a failure of logic that's very quite a very common yes somebody prove his case when he feels with his case you think a clue but he's wrong no he's that wrong is that wrong in order to prove him wrong you have to prove you're right and you haven't done that yet okay can we show that we're right I think we can stop me now this is Bishop Butler was a bishop of the Anglican Church in Britain and also a noted philosopher and he put forth an argument on this matter and for the for the recordings here there are various versions and portrayal of Butler's argued and some of them were less successful I'm portraying it best as I understand it somebody wants to fight the textual battle and say that's not really we met it's fine with me i don't mind and you can call it Calvin's occupation or godsey's Butler argument but i think the following argument works let's start with distinguishing two types of pleasures maybe there are more but there are at least two different types of places there are certain things that you are hard wild hardwired to feel pleasure when they happen just the weight normal human beings are constructed biologically second type of pleasure is satisfaction you want something and you get it the desire to have it is satisfied and satisfaction is a pleasure it's a type of pleasure the two are quite different particular you can't have a pleasure satisfaction unless you have a desire to get satisfied whereas the first type of pleasure you can have without any desire at all you will all experience this when you give the first taste of ice cream to your baby let's say you're eight month old your ten-month-old you come at the baby with it with a spoon with ice cream on it and the baby is weary never seen this before and he's pretty clever using only those what he's seen before I hasn't you touch his lips it's cold and he's that familiar with the consistency they may draw away until he gets a taste it's a taste he's booked he's hooked because it's an instant pleasure right you're not satisfying any desires he had no desire for that at all he's just wired to feel that pleasure that's a hard word there's a pleasure of course of course having experienced it having experienced the pleasure he may now form a desire for the pleasure that's quite natural next time he might get a double pleasure it might get the hardware pleasure of the taste of the ice cream plus the satisfaction of his desire to have more ice cream to think of that pleasure there's no I exclusive these pleasures can double up but there's a difference between a hardwired pleasure and a satisfaction pleasure that's step one now is that too there are cases where you do something to engage in something try to accomplish something where the only pleasure available is a pleasure of satisfaction there's no hardwired pleasure available whatsoever in other words you want it you're going after what you want if you get it you'll satisfy your desire for it if you didn't want it to be no pleasure in it at all it's only because you want it that has a pleasure for example you are trying to encourage your eight year old cousin to have an interest in playing chest so you have challenged him to a game of chess and your goal is to artfully lose make it seem to him that's real competition and make it seem different at the time that you lost track and let him feel that there was a competition in the game and he'll win and because he'll win he'll be encouraged and you'll say look who's obviously have some talent so you should play more chess that's your goal and setting up this game but as it happens your poor eight year old cousin is much worse than you thought he makes lunders and gets confused and then when he makes a bad move he catches himself oh I've lost to look I've lost I looked out at this point you can't pretend to cant pretend you didn't see it because he he's noticed in himself and one babe why he started taking off his pieces because you can't help it until he swamped he loses the game you've won you've won the game you have any pleasure from that I don't think so cuz you didn't want to win you wanted to artfully rules and beating an eight-year-old doesn't give you any credit at all because the only pleasure available here is a pleasure of satisfaction and the desire that ledge is a play the game of chess with him wasn't satisfied you ended up with no pleasure there are times when the only pleasure that's available and a certain type of activity is a pleasure of satisfaction so there wouldn't be a desire it would be no pleasure I hope wala but I said so far as I'm the yes and boring right that there are two different types of pleasures hardwired and satisfaction and also that there are times when it's a pleasure only of satisfaction we got so far because now I'm going to lower the boom okay so that's good if the two premises are very obvious and simple then the conclusion is very very strongly supported I imagine a case where the only pleasure available is a pleasure of satisfying the desire what is the object of that desire is the object of that desire pleasure is a desire desire going after pleasure the conclusion from what I said so far is that it cannot be that desire cannot be a desire for pleasure that's probably not obvious so let me show you why it's true because imagine the desire here was to lose the game to the eight-year-old that was the desire the goal of that desire we say is to lose the game to the eight-year-old the only pleasure available is if I lose the game to the eight-year-old I'll satisfy the desire and satisfying the desire will give you a pleasure that's the only pleasure available now the city says y'all know what you say but really the desire is for pleasure okay but that would be that you are two pleasures available not one but two the desire is aimed at a pleasure and when they play when desired gets what it wants there'll be another pleasure of satisfaction and we are describing this as a case where there's only one pleasure available not to let's go through it again sometimes have a blackboard and its raw desire is a big monster with big teeth big open mouth right desire wants to get something desire has an object that it wants to get whatever that object maybe if you feed the object to the desire desire satisfied be eating the objects of the desire giving the desire what it wants satisfies the desire and the result is a pleasure the pleasure comes from satisfying the desire if I imagine situation where the only pleasure available it's a pleasure that comes from satisfying a desire then the whole scenario is that the fire is there it's aimed at cute when it gets Q having q satisfies it and produces a pleasure that's the only pleasure in the picture question what is Q you can't be a pleasure because then you have two pleasures in the picture you have cute and then do the pleasure of this desire is getting Q and becoming satisfy I that simply wrong is only one pleasure available s'ok you can't be a pleasure the case of the eight-year-old the objects of desire with desires after is to artfully lose the game to the eight-year-old that's its object if it gets its object then there will be a pleasure for the agent because he got what he wanted because his desire artfully lose was satisfied there's nothing in the art for losing this Pleasant is because he wanted to artfully lose that he got a pleasure well artfully losing is not itself a pleasure it's pleasurable to him because it satisfies his desire to artfully lose he was trying to win and artfully lost he would have any pleasure oh because they didn't win that means this is but this I what I believe is worship Bishop Butler's argument that means that we definitely have desires for things other than pleasure are we going so far okay that doesn't win the day that doesn't win the Davis inning as a comeback but its progress because it means some of my motivations are not motivations for pleasure it was the time when people wanted to argue that every single desired every single motivation is only for pleasure if that were true the cynical would hands down no now we know some of our desires some of our motivations are not for pleasure but the cynic has a fallback position he could say okay okay I see that in fact sometimes we decide things other than pleasure but maybe we only desire them as means to other pleasures or to pleasures maybe they're only as means if I desire x and x isn't the pleasure when I act to get X I'm not acting to get a pleasure but it might be that X is a means to a later pleasure which means the only thing I desire as an end is pleasure person works to get money I hope this doesn't come as a surprise but very little you can do with 771 hundred-dollar bills you can't you know stare at them put them in a can shake them you have to buy something with them so they're only a means the stunted dollar bills don't give you pleasure they give you the means to buy something else but something else might be something which gives you pleasure so now the cynic says I agree that sometimes you act for things that aren't pleasure but I claim that when you ask why you want that other thing you'll have a chain I want a for BB for C&C for thee and I want D because it'll produce pleasure and then which all the things you want as an end are pleasurable and that being the case your value what you're aiming at is always only pleasure and that's good enough for the cynic I think that's true that the conclusion is good if he could show that the ghoulish is good but at this point the sinning is give me no reason to think he's right he just says I think that whenever you go ahead to something that isn't pleasure its a means to get pleasure okay it's a free world you can think what you like why should I thank you seriously you just say that before he had what sounded like arguments in his favor now he's just opting to take this position against everybody else in the world I think at that point we have every right to just dismiss him you've just opted to go against everybody in the world but no reason that's not that's not worthy be taken seriously I think we could do better than that I think we can be analyzed the way people psychology work you can see that that's that's not correct where is the end of chain where's the end of the chain of things that we want about HIV and be four C is C for thee we get something I'm talking psychology now this is not philosophy is that logic about forcing any opinions on anybody there's talking about how people actually work I say somebody working a job why do you work at the job turn money why are any money doesn't want to buy a house why I want to buy a house because I want to live in a house why you want to live in a house because it's very pleasant to live in I live in apartment I anticipate living a house will be very very pleasant said why do you want to do with very very pleasant he says are you serious why do I want to do what's my favorite lesson why because this Pleasant so the reason behind is being Pleasant not only was pleasant for some other reason doing it because it's pleasant that's the end of it I want that pleasant experience for that Pleasant quality of life that's perfectly reasonable not everybody would give that answer but perfectly reasonable it means pleasure is perfectly reasonable as an end that people have where other things lead up to it and that's an end of the chain where I stop to think of something else but I don't think that's the only example I'll give you two other examples somebody sees me handy five hundred dollars to another person he says why are you doing that why are you give you five hundred dollars say why cuz i borrowed five hundred dollars from him and I'm paying the debt and why are you painted it why am I painted it I borrowed the money yet I open the money when I borrow money I pay back that's what I do but why are you paying you back at that point it may be doesn't always have to be but it could be that there's no further why there's no further go when I borrow money I pay it back that's what I do that's how I live that's just my principle i might say because it's right but that's the word that's saying I'm committed to doing it Gorillaz doing it for its moral quality and it doesn't have any further I think that's perfectly understandable personally reasonable and I think it is common that people will tell you that he do things and they do them because they're right and they don't do the right thing for some other purpose some people may do it for another purpose not putting any restrictions on people I'm just making room for another type of example a third type I see that you are working on your interpersonal sensitivity you're reading novels about people in trouble and you're trying to experience their pain vicariously so that you can when you come across such a person you can empathize such a person you're talking to people getting psychological helpers to strategy that's that improve your interpersonal sensitivity why are you doing that first time I say look I'm good for a while I've had some experience of the world it seems to me this is part of my ideal the best way I can be I have a picture of myself what I would like to be picture myself that I think would make me the best that I can be and this is part i want to make myself into the best person I can be and interpersonal 7 sensitivity is an important part of that so I'm working to improve my interpersonal sensitivity but why are you trying to be the best person you could be sorry that's the best person I could be so that's why I'm doing it why am I wife I don't fit because that's the best I can be there's nothing further I'm gonna make more money and I'm not gonna have to sleep better it's all this one it's a goal it's a goal that attracts me and I'm acting on that basis it's used to be that also is perfectly reasonable perfectly natural and people act that way often and there although I'm acting for the sake of something about me it's not pleasure it's not pleasure it's being the best person I can be and if the critic sneaks back in it says but don't you feel good when you're the best person you could be yes sir that will be yes but that's the byproduct that's the byproduct that's George's increased muscle strength when he goes back to Santa Fe he went to help the people prevent themselves were being swamped by the river and his muscles got stronger as a result I want to be the best person I can be and when I achieve what I want I get pleasure but the pleasure is from the wanting to be best person wasn't the goal of my action let me illustrate this my last shot knob take questions on this and I'll show you how to the Jewish application is yeah one of the books on ethics they tell the following story now this may be true story or may be apocryphal but it makes the point very nicely Abe Lincoln was driving in a wagon with a friend of his and Lincoln was taking the cynics line everybody everything to do is always only the sake of your own bed and his friend was appalled as a driving along they come to a bridge over a narrow River and the side of the big of the river there's a bog and caught in the bog are young pigs they caught and the squealing lincoln tells the driver to stop the wagon and he gets out and he wades into the mud and he frees the baby pigs one by one getting of course Phil thing with mud the process and climbs back into the wagon is the carriage and they drive off and Link it's Fran system hey I don't get you you're telling me that everything you do is only for the sake of your own pleasure your own benefit how could you possibly say that you just got yourself Phil fleet with mud to free squealing pigs from a bog how could you possibly think that was only for your home pleasure no benefit now Lincoln gives back the argument of the cynic do you know how I feel now muddy as I am I feel terrific a fellow creature that was in pain and a distress and in danger is now running free and happy and and out of danger I feel wonderful that I did was an antecedent of Peter Singer I feel wonderful that I did that for a fellow creature and if we had gone by and had not stopped I had not stopped to help though the piglets so I wouldn't bet even sleep tonight I've been here the squealing of the pigs of my my am I in my head and I wouldn't be able to sleep I just did it my pleasure and that and to avoid pain now I'm not remember where this story stops there but the right next step is for the friend to say to Lincoln okay I hate what you're saying but tell me something don't you know that there are people who aren't like you there are people who were drive by and hear the pig squealing and go on without another thought that her thought wouldn't bother them at all they wouldn't hear the echoes of the cries of the pigs in their sleep in there was destroyed asleep that wouldn't feel guilty they go by without a head without hesitation and furthermore egg take one of those people put a gun to his head and say i order you to free the pigs he would not feel good about feeling the pigs he just looked for a way to toss you in the mud wouldn't feel good about it if you only wasted his time did that to save his life he would have any satisfaction i'm giving you the way he without any pleasure whatsoever from from freeing the pigs tell me aid what's the difference between you and him why is it that you got pleasure from freeing that and would feel bad about yourself if you didn't and he's the opposite from you he feels fine about himself and he passes them by and if you force him to help he feels terrible what's the difference the difference is that you want to help creatures in distress and he doesn't care you have the desire to help change the distress when you succeed in doing what you want you get the pleasure of satisfaction if you don't help them in distress then you have the pain of frustration he doesn't have the desire so there's no pleasure available for him if he frees them and there's no pain that will be caused by is that for him because he doesn't have the desire that shows that your desire is not a desire for pleasure on the country your desires a desire to help creatures in distress and the pleasure comes from satisfying the desire the paint would come from not satisfying the desire that doesn't sure that everything you want is pleasure what it shows is that you want to help creatures in distress and you can pleasure when you succeed in doing what you want to do as is true for everybody but that's the byproduct that's the byproduct it's not the goal therefore there's no merit in the cynics case whatsoever I would he go so far now as I say this is pretty common in philosophy psychology has picked up on this Aristotle nudists 2,300 years ago he pointed out that happiness the people who dedicate themselves to chasing happiness very often an unhappy and very often than people who are happiest are the people who are doing something else but they're doing something that's meaningful to them and the successful at it and that's a nice and happy happiness is most often byproduct of doing something else that you care about that you value and that which you are successful now this is all very important Jewish terms because the Torah specifies a great many actions that need to be done but idea of an action for the Torah and we'll have them for philosophy also it's not just moving your body and action is not just moving your body an action is a purpose which is acted upon by the will often with a choice of means as well without that you don't haven't actually just haven't happening that makes because describe to Steve what's the difference between kicking a ball and soccer game or tripping and as you're falling your foot banging against the ball and sending sending it flying what's the difference in both cases you're the contact of your foot with a ball made the ball move but we say when I kicked the ball or soccer game that's an action when I trip and fall and on the way down my leg comes to contact my foot comes to contact with the ball the ball boobs is an accident we call it an accident both our bottle emotions brother contact the foot with ball the ball moves in both cases or only one is an exit what is an action what's the difference in soccer game I choose my goals get the ball there and I think if I kick it all right foot with this part of my toe with this type of spin with this type of a force I'll get it there and I choose to kick choose to kick in order to get the ball over there that's what an action is Isis not exist now that means when you define an action you have to you have to specify what the purpose is you have to specify what the person's picture of those of the relevant environment is how he chose the means to achieve the action change any of those and you have a different action even though the bodily motion may be the same give a different X I lived through the Vietnam rights the students took over buildings on campuses and they satin crossroads of busy intersections and stop the traffic was a great debate and legislators what to do some were in favor of forced repression call out the National Guard and beat them up and put them in jail other side other two tragedies there were two groups in favor of forcible repression before I left and the far right the fire right said these students are criminals and their bombs and their their schnooks because they're young beat him up but Irma jail that was the far right far left said beat him up and put him in jail because police brutality will cause a backlash and they'll be a revolution that will overthrow the government so now here's the measure coming up for a vote how many are in favor of forcible without brutal repression hands go up you don't know what they're voting for one is voting for breaking the resistance is supporting the government and the other is voting for overthrowing the government because their purposes are entirely different purposes so we're talking now about the Torah prescribing actions part of what the Torah prescribes is purposes parley with the Torah prescribes a state of mind not just the motion of the body so for example when the Torah says that you have to perform a certain missin you need to know that it's a mitzvah and you need to intend this is not purpose this is intention purpose and intention or two different things you need to intend that what you do satisfy the midst of the God commanded if you don't intend that it doesn't work so I'm a sulfur I'm writing a horoscope custom is as you write the words you say that I'm an early riser Here I am 7am and I'm writing I'm fairly into the book of Deuteronomy and I'm going smart right yesterday I'll a sham okay i'ma cut the Sh'ma I roles I've all six were they said 06 word and look at my watch hey it's 7 12 time for saying the morning spa and I just said it I just said the morning spot so done that mitzvah no I have not because when i said the words I did not intend that my recital of the words satisfy the commandment I was saying the words because I'm riding a saint Patera so after go back and say it again this has a profound implication can an atheist the former commandant on these grounds the answer is no he cannot perform a commandment he can do an action that's identical to what the commandment requires just like I said the Sh'ma identically to the commandment is recite the Sh'ma but I did not perform the commandment to fulfill a commandment you have to know there's a commander know there's a commandment and intend that what you do fulfill the commandment you're in the army and that sergeant says to you gives you an order close the door but as happy sitting Israeli army the commander's in Ethiopian and you're from Russia and you don't understand his Hebrew said something you know but maybe it was best that I'm a day who knows but me while you're cold so you gonna shut the door have you obeyed the command surely not you didn't know there was a command got a clue what he said it's just by accident happens that your action who felt what the command required an atheist cannot perform any command you can put on tefillin and it can give charity and you can seek justice gets no credit fulfilling any Commandments because an action part of the definition of an action is the purpose for which you act and if you don't act for that purpose of the heck without intention then that's not the action that the Torah is describing that's step one yeah it will also apply to someone who has to choose to avoid a prohibition we treat those we treat those very similar the tablet says when when a person in a position where you can eat a cheeseburger and he knows it's wrong and he says that I'm not going to eat a cheeseburger he gets credit as if he had full a positive commitment so the fact that is positive or negative the question is I'm making a choice and I know that there's a commandment and I'm acting in such a way to fulfill what the commandment requires fact that it's formally legally positive or negative doesn't make that difference well the question is whether violate and and fulfill our really symmetrical or not it's tricky that's tricky because there can be something called an unintentional violation or a negligent violation and the Torah talks about that in great detail so I'm just registering that it's not perfectly symmetrical and there's more to be said but I can't do it now because of a couple of things I might do that okay that's the intention to fulfill the commandment what about purpose what gold should a person have when he fulfills that come in well let's start at the bottom the Torah talks about reward and punishment president fulfills the commandment he gets a reward is a commanding is a punishment one motivation that people have for doing the right thing is I want to get a reward and I don't want to be punished now in a certain sense that's low in a certain sense that's childish as I will explain in a moment but it's valid Jewish terms it's valid a person is motivated by total self-interest I want the reward I don't want to be punished will get rewarded and avoid punishment for what he did it's valid and it works part because it's based on a true understanding of how God runs the world with reward or punishment but it's low it's low it's childish imagine a person who said steal I don't steal I don't steal you know why because when I was 16 years old my uncle got caught stealing and he went to the jail I visited in jail it was horrible and I'm frightened to death of it and I don't want to go to jail I don't want to jail and I can never trust that if I take something I won't be caught that's why I don't steal I think we feel that that person isn't fully mature he's acting in a childish way doesn't know that stealing is wrong here's the world understanding him not feeling is like not being overweight or not needing arsenic or just you know it's gonna cost me it's gonna hurt so I know I'm just protecting myself first without any moral understanding is not I wouldn't say I would say he's not fully mature not fully adult and certainly not in a position of Honor a much higher role is what one who says what I'm saying now needs several hours elaboration of just using for this discussion president says what God wants is right for the world not because he said so but because of other vase a long complicated story God says it is right for the world and as my monitors that others put it even if there were no reward even if there no reward this is what I would do because it's right because it's good because it's what the Creator wants for the room it has its own value doesn't get value because it's a means to something good for me in the country I become valuable because I do it doing it gives my life value I don't subjugate it to me how'd you get myself to it because it has its own absolute value that motivation is may not be the very highest type of motivation but that's that's a very high tide and the Torah tells us that we should work to develop that kind of motivation doing it because it's right doing it because it's good doing it because God wants to do it or as its put sometimes doing it out of love of God doing it out of love of God now here's where we need need to lean on the first 35 minutes the Civic says that's a mirage that's a mirage it's impossible no whenever there's anything like that the only goal you have in doing everything you do is only your own pleasure do it for God or because it's right that's just a mirage never happens that's why I need the discussion that I'd started with because if someone's convinced that that's all Mirage and the Jewish Jewish tradition emphasizing it will sound like it's a fantasy has no connection with reality but having disposed of the cynics position I think we can see now that what the Torah prescribes for us is not it's not fantasy it's something that's available in the real world now I want to make a clarification and the illustration then I'll be finished the Torah teaches that people are created with two different types of motivation there's a lot to say about this before our purposes one selfish it one of twisting the fact that God's motivation is only altruistic he created the universe only to benefit us and he were being has a soul that soul carries something of God into the world all these words with the clarification about doing it tonight carry something I'm what it carries among other things is the ability to act on behalf of others on behalf of God and on behalf of other people and we also have selfish motivations we're built with both since we're built with both we can work to strengthen one and we can the other that's something which is common we all experience that we all experience psychological change and sometimes we experience it by our own efforts what would happen the person lacked in his initial motivation set its initial gift of creation a desire to to help others had no algae's of motivation whatsoever I can't say this with certainty but it seems to be like he'd be stuck I don't see how you could create a category of motivation that wasn't there before and I'll give you an example of where this occurs tragically there's something called psychopathy a psychopath will do something like this to have this knife I'll carry this knife around need to put it someplace I've two choices I put in table or I can put it in your arm no choices now experience has taught me that they had different consequences they're put at the table makes a mark in the table just because the table you know it blunts tonight they're certainly same as the samples hard and put it in your arm you're going to start to yell and scream and get blood all over everything which is gonna make things messy as it was on so left to decide where I'm going to put it no that's how he looks at it he doesn't experience other people's pain it doesn't experience it the yellow screen might just as well be feedback to a speaker screaming the pain of other people doesn't register this is register he doesn't perceive it that's horrible he can't imagine what's wrong with putting the knife and another person's arm so it causes a lot of noise okay so I'll put an earplug now go communicate him build a bridge so that he will come to experience other people's pain I know if that's possible if you experience any night ended it wit enough we can increase your sensitivity God created us with both altruistic and selfish motivations those motivations are often accomplished with one another not always but often and we can work to strengthen some over the other final illustration I want to give you is this let's imagine a father last two sons and the father is older and needs help and it sounds are dedicated dedicated cause one or the other two thirty in the morning and sun gets up runs over the house and does and if you will observe then video then it look exactly to say father calls yesterday what can I do for you what do you need me to come over I'm coming comes in big smile yes how can I help you what can I do for you they both act exactly the same but the inner reality is quite different one when he gets the call he sees the numbers is oh no not again third time this week I have to do my father I owe it to him I have to do it up two seconds to put on my right tone of voice he'll then look here here so it's play-acting but he does it because he knows the answer he knows he's obligated to do it he's dutiful he's responsible he fulfills his applications with irritation with pain with upset his father doesn't have a clue he does it perfectly the other son when the call comes to 2 30am it's sunny thanks Wow an opportunity to do for my father I love my father I know that he's loved me I know that he's investment i love it when i have an opportunity to show him how much I love him it's precious it's a precious opportunity see private calls huh yes then what can I do st. our boys same tone of voice but the inner reality is utterly different now the father who's watching the performance doesn't notice any difference between them imagine the father on his deathbed somehow comes to understand the difference between the two sons whose performance is going to be more precious to him the son who performed out of duty responsibility with irritation and pain but overcame it or the Sun responded out of love I hope it's obvious that the father is going to be much more thrilled with the response of the son who does it out of love the son who does it only out of duty and responsibility is something there's something not fully human why doesn't he love us we're talking about a father who loved the chosun and invested in the Sun I cared for the Sun protected the Sun why doesn't he love him back why not it's something broken there this is the difference between serving God out of love and serve a god out of Duty obligation indebtedness but with inner resistance which you overcome because you're committed to doing the right thing that's the idea of serving god I love that's the highest level of divine service it's divine its service of God because I want to do for God and that is built on the foundation of what i said in the first 35 minutes that it is possible to act on behalf of another of and other that's not an illusion questions never left over ok so I put on the title true or false so you know you know that it's false ok you