The Importance of Building Character

Does the "Content of One’s Character" Matter Anymore?

Come enjoy an evening of Socratic dialogue. No philosophy background required—just the willingness to think carefully and the readiness to hear many different perspectives and creative tangents on the topic.

Character is an important topic in philosophy. This is related to the study of an ethical point of view called virtue ethics, a tradition stretching from Aristotle through the Stoics and beyond that asks not “What should I do?” but “What kind of person should I become?”

On the virtue ethics view, good actions aren’t produced by following the right rules or calculating the right outcomes -- they emerge from a well-cultivated inner life, from virtues like courage, temperance, and practical wisdom built through deliberate practice over time.

Benjamin Franklin is a famous example of someone who lived virtue ethics. Throughout a large part of his life, he listed 13 virtues and focused on one virtue per week, while remaining mindful of the others. In his journal, each day, he marked a small dot whenever he failed to live up to a virtue -- not to shame himself, but to see patterns clearly.

This would be a curious activity in our modern world of urban and suburban anonymity, productivity metrics, status symbols, careers, and competition -- the slow, inward work of building character can seem not just difficult but deprioritized, even replaced by, getting an education, to getting a job, getting to the gym to look good, attracting a mate, going on trips, posting, scrolling, bing watching, and acquiring stuff.

Questions We May Explore In The Discussion
This is a Socratic discussion, not a lecture series. The goal is creative, collaborative inquiry, and brainstorming from many different angles -- sharing perspectives that act as food for thought.

Here are some questions to start pondering before hand that we may pick back up in the meetup:

• Is Character-Building in Decline? If you stopped someone on the street and asked what specific virtues they are actively working to develop, what would they say—and what would that answer tell us?

• How Is It Practiced in The Modern World? What language do we use to describe virtues today? What are the modern virtues?

• How Has Virtue Ethics Changed? Virtue ethics was central to ancient Greek civic and political life. What function did it actually serve? Has the reason for it faded? Why has it receded from everyday moral thinking? If it indeed has, is the emphasis on personal character a holdover from a world without reliable institutions—where social order was maintained differently? Does it still carry weight in a world with laws, contracts, and enforcement mechanisms?

• Should We Refocus Virtue In Our Modern Lives? What does virtue ethics offer the individual? How does the conscious cultivation of character shape mental well-being and a sense of purpose?

• What Does Virtue Ethics Do For Us Psychologically As Apposed to The Pursuit of External Goods?

• Character vs. Rules vs. Consequences: Is virtue ethics compatible with consequentialist and deontological perspectives on ethics? Or do they address fundamentally different dimensions of moral life?

We look forward to seeing you there!