What is character? Character is the network of habits that permeate all the intentional acts of an individual.
I am not using the word habit in the way we often do, as a technical ability existing apart from our wishes. These habits are an intimate and fundamental part of our selves. They are representations of our will. They rule our will, working in a coordinated way they dominate our way of acting. These habits are the results of repeated, intelligently controlled, actions.
Habits also control the formation of ideas as well as physical actions. We cannot perform a correct action or a correct idea without having already formed correct habits. “Reason pure of all influence from prior habit is a fiction. “The medium of habit filters all material that reaches our perception and thought…Immediate, seemingly instinctive, feeling of the direction and end of various lines of behavior is in reality the feeling of habits working below direct consciousness… Habit means special sensitiveness or accessibility to certain classes of stimuli, standing predilections and aversions, rather than bare recurrence of specific acts. It means will.â€
I think that intellectual character, which is that system of habits that lead us to think in a certain manner and determine significantly what kind of person we are, is a reality in all of us that has a significant similarity with ’paradigm’.
What do I mean when I say ‘character is paradigm’? I mean that the concept ‘paradigm’ is a useful concept for comprehending ‘character’.
Intellectual character is a way of “seeingâ€, which transposes into a way of behaving. Without the habits of character our actions would be an untied bundle of isolated acts. ‘Character’ is a word representing the interpenetration of habits. If our habits are formed in an incoherent manner our behavior will be incoherent. Our actions, in the case of intellectual character, our thoughts would be a “juxtaposition of disconnected reactions to separated situationsâ€.
My understanding of character and the quotations concerning the nature of character are taken from “Habits and Will†by John Dewey alexandercenter.com/jd/johndeweyhabits.html.
Plato said something similar in relation to morality. Simone Weil commenting on this said:
From this perspective our habitual nature that may allow us to participate in mob rule could not be considered intellectual character. Intellectual character cannot be considered as blind directed thought but initiating from a higher more inclusive perspective. But, it can be a simple issue as well
One of the most telling psychological battles a person faces is with the highly formidable foe, the infamous chocolate chip cookie. Our intellectual character decides to avoid it as part of an effort to lose 20 pounds and eat healthier.
However our unconscious habitual nature often wins out and this truly demonic cookie is consumed regardless of our intellectual decision.
It just makes one wonder how much of our lives is really decided by intellectual character regardless of how we may intellectually value it.
I would say that intellectual character consists of the following traits:
Intellectual Humility: Having Knowledge of Ignorance
Intellectual Courage: Being Willing to Challenge my Beliefs
Intellectual Empathy: Entertaining Opposing Views
Intellectual Integrity: Holding Myself to the Same Standards as I Hold Others
Intellectual Perseverance: Working Through Complexity and Frustration
Confidence in Reason: Obvious
Intellectual Autonomy: Obvious
I take these character traits from “Critical Thinking: Tools for taking charge of your professional and personal life†by Richard Paul and Lynda Elder.
But this list is relative. For example Intellectual Empathy varies. Some views we entertain and some we don’t. Because we psychologically like to remember the ones we do and discount the ones we don’t as"justifiable," we claim to have intellectual empathy.
I don’t believe it is as clear cut as it seems and open to all sorts of self deception.
Empathy is when we create in imagination those things that will allow us to better understand the thoughts of another we are developing the habits of intellectual empathy. When we challenge our own treasured beliefs or assumptions or ideas we are developing the habits of intellectual courage. When I consistently go back and study the matter to finally understand then I am developing the habit of intellectual perseverance.
We build intellectual character traits by will and habit. Parents and teachers are probably the experts in building character. The greatest task for all parents and teachers is to build the character of children by helping the child form the habits that result in good character.
The story of my life. I remember being kicked out of Sunday school for questions about the Devil. It went on into all levels of education and am proud to have acquired a far above average amount of dirty looks from the “educated.” for peculiar questions deviating from the smooth flow.
She was the queen of questions decided by the “educated” to inhibit learning.
Andre, you may have been a genius but your sister was Simone. What else can be said? I’m happy that you knew it. It must have been something conversing with her in Ancient Greek when you were 15 and she was 12.
CT (Critical Thinking) is being taught in our (USA) schools and colleges now. It appears to have begun slowly about three decades ago.
Developing intellectual character is a part of CT. I reference “Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life†Richard Paul and Lynda Elder. This is, I think, a text book for high school.
aspaccia is not a thinker but a woman who read the same book all over again, why did you enjoyed her words of knowing your ennemy thing? when you think you dont have any ennemy it is clear, when you think it means you know some stuff, the first about knowledge is to see that what hurts is within yourself that why you want to think to help the positive part of you who sees happy ending in living to win, who cannot see thant is not a thinker at all and nothing of what he said must be repeated as of truth, you are hating that truth by expressing clearly to kill it like that
it is your friends who must know only and love them better than yourself, the love you feel beyound yourself is the real weapon like hiroshima bomb against all what threaten your life, you see how simple is to live without bothering yourself of ANY humiliation of thinking than being in what you disgust and see it is bullshit not
aspacia holds her own, and I don’t discredit her, and I won’t.
Warfare is one of the few absolutes of human existence, and being aware and knowledgeable of one’s enemies is imperative. The lack of honor in warfare is well known, and expected. Read about any great military leader, they knew their troops well, and made every effort to know their nemesis even more.
Plus, the really nifty part is, I can choose to quote whoever I like, cause it’s my sig line.
Friendship is most often a subterfuge, where one uses the other for what they want/need. Nothing more.
another woman unable to give life completely stuned of who has the power to put her down unable to move beyound, dont worry honey you will never know any leader army’s mind because you dont have any to be yourself, this is the worse curse that a thinker can see in a human body, not able to think nor to feel what he is made for
you are the proof with that behavior no matter how true is what you think forcing the lie to the truth, which i see as never, you are the proof of equality in evil beings of men and womwn, but i prefer the evil of men at least they can be in evil truth to show the truth of being sensitive to the pleasure of love, you women are really the all way lie that you dont even exist in any reality of the world