The Dallas Examined Life Philosophy Group Monthly Meetup

TOPIC: Character -

Character: the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

USATV has an interesting catch phrase - "characters welcome" which started me thinking about all the ways in which we use the word "character". It seems that in USA's view that the word denotes some unusual, perhaps odd trait and certainly we can use the phrase "S/he is quite a character." yet what do we really mean? This can be said in a positive way or negative. It seems different when we say "S/he is a person of character."

Fallon discribed Groucho Marx more than adequately. And, I think most people would agree that Groucho was certainly a character, but did he have character?

• Is there a difference between being a character and having character? Does it matter?

• What do you think of when you hear the word Character?

• What characteristics make up an admirable character? On the other hand, what characteristics are required for a despicable character?

• What developes character?