Kierkegaard 's view of people having no character is incorrect, at best it’s flawed. In the Present Age his critique “no character and neither has abstract intelligence”, is due to passionless people having no values. Ambiguity arrives when Kierkegaard 's equates ‘being carried away’ to folly. Kierkegaard identifies character as something that is fixed ‘engraved’ and is largely based on people having global character traits that are influenced by society and one 's environment. My argument revolves around a particular question: Why is there common ambivalence regarding character? I conclude that through the concerning relationship of personality and moral behavior people don 't have general or universal character traits; Why? Because we lack …show more content…
Kierkegaard states, “Morality is character, character is that which is engraved but the sand and the sea have no character and neither has abstract intelligence, for character is really inwardness (in this case values)” (PA 14). Here is the ambiguity, the notion that character is fixed and engraved. However, it’s not. Let me unpack this quote then apply it to the overall picture of how ‘selling one’s breeches to buy a wig’ is not a constituent of character. It 's not justifiable to assign virtues based on a systematic observation which does not represent our character or human behavior. One, being values are not fixed, values can change depending on the situation. This is seen coming into the present age. A new social force emergences, the working class, a voting working class in the 19th century. A century where things are shifting at such a speed it scares people, specifically tradition. For example going from an all-white context to a mix racial status all within a person 's lifetime. Witnessing these changes shakes them at their core and makes them unsure about their future. “Being carried away” does not apply in selling one 's breeches to buy a wig because it has nothing to do with character or value. If we were to view value as something you attend to, the question of how one should or shouldn 't attend to that particular value is going to differ, hence, no universal character
In Rand’s Anthem, O’Neill’s “Hairy Ape”, Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, and Miller’s “Crucible”, an individual’s bad choices determine the reputation assigned by a conformed society. These four books have characters that have different personalities from each other but still end up sharing similar problems within a conformed society. A conformed society is where people follow certain rules just because they are afraid of the consequences that come with not following the rules. Conformity impacts the way that someone thinks because of the influences around them. It can be a good thing, but in these character’s live they make bad choices that impact their reputation.
I really like this article, and agree with most of his point. One of the quote in the article that like the most is when the author says, “a life that exhibities the virtues is for that very reason a better life: not because the act of virtuous have good consequences;” I agree with this quote because people are more likely have different attitude in different situation. The way we act, we think and do what we do is more depend on the norms rather than the compassion in our heart. We do something good by helping people out is the thing that we feel like we want to do. When we try to help someone who needs us; we will automatically feel happy in our heart.
However, today corrupt people use cunning tactics for bad reasons and give cunningness a bad reputation. Another one of Aristotle’s ideas on virtues and vices from Nicomachean Ethics suggests similar arguments about how virtues are applied and if it’s virtuous or not. “Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act...” (Aristotle). What makes an action virtues is how one acts, if it’s virtuous it’s out of good, if it’s not it’s a
In the Great Gatsby,F Scott Fitzgerald uses the moral ambiguity of Daisy Buchanan to show how she delicately but skillfully uses her charismatic persona to make her seem as an innocent victim, when in reality her passiveness toward her husband's cheating and the ongoing monopoly of Gatsby's heart makes her look rather like a character that any righteous woman or man to despise yet feel for her. Daisy, throughout Fitzgerald's novel, becomes more and more reliant on her heart. She wants to be with Gatsby, a man who waited for his beloved love only to realize that she had been married for quite some time with a child to take care of but despite all of this he tries to be with her and tries to win her heart. Daisy falls into the antagonist category
They instead replace them with new and improved virtues. Loyalty is something Odysseus killed people for showing lack of but the only time Loyalty is even mentioned on the Springerplus data table is the tenth virtue in Mexico. Other than that, it's nowhere to be seen. The importance of loyalty has declined heavily from The Odyssey to today's society, from being killed if you don’t show enough to barely being mentioned on top ten around the world, people just don’t have the same passion about loyalty and their ancestors once did. Another virtue that has lost its importance is craftiness.
Character traits shapes how everyone expresses their feelings and simultaneously build up great values within people who makes effort. However, a crisis may crush their identity instantly. Countless tremendous changes might occur during the process. For example, the loss of control over oneself might hurt someone. During the stage of crisis, human beings tend to rely on trustworthy people or else they are clueless on what to do.
In his satirical essay, “On the Damned Human Race”, Mark Twain refutes Darwin’s claim on the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animal and instead asserts his claim on the descent of man due to moral sense. Twain backs his claim by analyzing the different characteristic features between the human race and animal nature, supplying ample ethos in the process, to demonstrate the retrogression society has made in order to pinpoint man’s flaws and reveal the fallacies of society. Through his revelation, Twain beseeches his audience to analyze their own morals when taking into the problems that exist in the human world. Given the broad scope of his generalization, Twain intended his piece for the general public as a whole, not excluding any specific group
All the Wise and Pretty Horses “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” (Helen Keller). Just as Helen Keller said, people cannot mature and develop character without experiencing life.
The virtues aren’t for any one specific group but a group as a whole. Man should follow the virtues and not vicious actions because vicious actions are harmful. Franklin believes that everyone should take interest in being virtuous if they “wish’d to be happy even in this World.” (Franklin, 433) Franklin’s 13 Virtues was a guide for Americans and future generations to follow to become the model citizens they believed they were.
Social Darwinism claims that human behavior and moral character were the forces of inheritance. Natural selection drives the mechanism of inheritance and the struggle for
In his satirical essay, “The Damned Human Race”, Mark Twain sets off on an uphill battle, to try and convince the entire human race to change its ways. Twain attempts to prove that morality, like any other virtue, has a dark side and this has been the cause of many of man’s problems. In a cynical tone, he uses extensive comparisons posed as experiments to point out the irony in Man’s decision to place themselves at the top of the hierarchy of all living things, based solely on their possession of a moral compass. Twain first utilizes comparisons in the form of experiments to aid his argument about the selfish cruelty of man. In this essay, his first experiment is on greed.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s moral ambiguity causes him to be recognized as a character whom is neither purely evil or purely good. Gatsby’s path to wealth and high social status, in pursuit of his love for Daisy, through his diligent work ethic embodies the American Dream and can be seen as just and virtuous. On the contrary, his devious and illegal activity he commits casts an immoral shade upon Gatsby’s character. Gatsby’s lack of moral clarity in his journey for wealth disturbs the purity of the American Dream. This contributes to the idea that the American Dream is deceiving, in that it is not possible to achieve one’s goal without foregoing one’s morals.
We read in our book that the central theme of Either/Or was the discrepancy between appearances and reality. Kierkegaard says “the inner is not the outer”. Kierkegaard is different from other philosophers in that he uses other authors to distance himself from the views explored. He also hides his own position behind the position of his characters. The first part of the book, Either which was written by A is more interesting than Or written by B, who was a judge named Wilhelm.
We need to decide in every situation the right thing, to do for us. This eventually leads to the statements about finding the mean of all the virtues for yourself. Once you have achieved true happiness, you will be able to deliberate for any person in any scenario what the mean is for them and the right thing to do for all cases and all
Essential Virtues: Achieving a Good Life Man has always sought after what he deemed a “good life”. A good life is being able to achieve one’s goals, pursuit of happiness, or when life’s blessings outweigh the burdens. Virtues help guide one to become morally excellent and live a fulfilling life. A virtue can be a behavior, personality trait, or habit that affects one’s emotions, perceptions and choice in life.