Know Yourself: Do You Have a Good Character?

Previously we established that we react to life in a combination of unconscious and conscious responses.

See Part 1 - Can you Change your stripes?

It is our temperament that determines our initial response to experiences, and our character that decides whether we run with that response, amend it, or reject it.

Temperament is an involuntary set of predispositions that, by-and-large, we did not consciously influence and cannot change.

Character, however, is changeable. It is also voluntary. We have varying degrees of choice in the shaping, development and use of our character.

In this article I want to examine what influence we can exercise over our Character.

At its most basic, a persons character can be divided into two facets, best defined by the words Morality and Conscience.

Morality refers to those convictions we hold as to what is acceptable and unacceptable, right and wrong, good and evil. As children we learn moral principles, and the moral facet of our character begins to develop its framework. As time passes, we develop adult reasoning faculties. As adults we encounter new information and experiences; some of which amend or completely change our moral framework.

It is upon this framework that conscience hangs. Conscience is that facet which defends those convictions back to us.

Both facets of our character are the product of many influences. But as we pass from childhood into adulthood (or more precisely, into adult reasoning) our own choices become the key contributor —or detractor— of our character.

But how do we ensure our choices contribute to and don't detract from our character?

A person of strong character is not necessarily someone whose moral framework is correct, but someone who is convicted that it is correct, and lives according to that conviction.

If they have no moral convictions or, though convicted, choose not to live by them, they are exhibiting only a lack of character.

Therefore, ones character is measured by:

1. A conviction-based mindset to living life, and
2. Choices that adhere to those convictions

If we live without conviction, or live in contrast to those convictions, we are not being a person exhibiting character, but rather an absence of it.

Therefore we cannot judge peoples character by their moral code. Rather, Moral codes must be judged by a standard other than conviction and conscience.

Although not within the scope of this article, before we can attempt to measure the truth of any moral code, we must accept a standard by which to measure it. People choose various standards, the chief of which are listed below:

• Cultural Relativism

• Situational Ethics

• Naturalism and Behaviorism

• Emotive Ethics
• Traditional Absolutes

See more: Measuring Morality

In Part 3 we'll examine why people violate their conscience

As a closing thought, due to the fact that we live in a world where human beings do not necessarily share the same convictions, nor always the character to live by them, it is necessary for some means of coercion so as to maintain an orderly society, i.e: The law. Below is a video that presents this thought quite clearly.

Laws: For When We Lack Conscience Or Conviction

Measuring Morality. Lou Whitworth Probe.org

David Desteno, Professor of Psychology, Northeastern University

The Moral Sense test Cognitive Evolution Laboratory, Harvard University

Thought experiments Joshua Knobe Professor of philosophy and cognitive sciences at Yale University