What is it in a person that triggers in others such senses as emotion, faith, respect, and admiration? Is it a man’s charisma, or a woman’s confidence? Is a person’s experiences or his commitment? Or is it one’s quiet coolness or another’s extroverted charm? It is all of these and more – what inspires us most is the character of a person.
Borrowing from Justice Potter Stewart’s remarks about obscenity, I cannot fully nor satisfactorily define the apparatus of character and shall not attempt to do so, but to be sure: we know it when we see it. Indeed, an attempt to quantify character with lists of “what does” and “what does not” constitute the singular character ignores that the whole far exceeds the sum of its parts.
Most of us strive for great character, teach our children of its importance, and hope for it in our associates, colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors. In one’s character we exact our trust and expectations. Where a person’s character is judged to be strong, so too is our faith that that person will make the world a better place. And where a person’s character is judged to be negligible, so too is our use for that person. As aside, I have noticed that a person of great character is always judged by others on a moral level, holding that person against a measure of moral order – making the case, with so many other arguments, against the whole notion of moral relativism.
While it is difficult and maybe impossible to enumerate all the requirements of assuming great character, it seems to me that there is a sort of progression of human behaviors and mentalities that, once achieved in life’s stride, take one on a journey to some higher degree of character. And that progression follows:
- Modesty leads to Sincerity…
- From Sincerity comes Honesty…
- From Honesty we find Integrity…
- And with Integrity we arrive at Great Character.
I will explore this progression in On Character, Part II.