Niebuhr: Moral Man and Immoral Society

Niebuhr, R., 2001. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics, Westminster John Knox Press.

From the Introduction:

“The thesis to be elaborated in these pages is that a sharp distinction must be drawn between the moral and social behavior of individuals and of social groups, national, racial, and economic; and that this distinction justifies and necessitates political parties which a purely individualistic ethic must always find embarrassing” (xi).

“Individual men may be moral in the sense tha they are able to consider interests other than their own…But all these achievements are more difficult, if not impossible, for human societies and social groups. In every human group there is less reason to guide and to check impulse, less capiacity for self-transcendence, less ability to comprehend the needs of others and therefore more unrestrained egoism…” (xi).