What is moral character?

Question

I'm doing homework concerning the Scarlet Letter and a section of the homework requires you to talk about the "novel's assumptions about humanity's moral character".



I had a idea of what moral character was.

Then I looked at the piece of paper.

Then poof! All gone.

Best Answer gets 5 stars :]

Answer 1

Character refers to our very being. Character is not our behavior (what we do), it is the motive behind why we do what we do.

Moral character is the foundation (the motivation) of why we do right and don't do wrong. Why is it right to tell the truth, for example.

For almost everyone, telling the truth makes us feel good inside. It's a feeling but where did the feeling come from? For most of us, the feeling comes from years of praise. We're praised throughout childhood when we are honest. We were praised for all sorts of behavior our parents and teachers considered praiseworthy. As adults, when we do something we consider praiseworthy, we imagine ourselves being praised and it feels good.

A feeling is a very weak foundation for moral character because feelings have no real authority over us and we get conflicting feelings from other sources. Many people, for example, get a good feeling from successfully cheating for a test.

But the Christian faith places a different foundation for moral character. To become closer to God, we have to try and adopt God's character and His character is truth and love. Love encompasses justice and mercy. But Christians still have feelings and often there are conflicts to be worked out as to how we ought to behave.

I hope this helps. Feel free to email me if you like.

Answer 2

Moral character is an abstract evaluation of a person's moral and mental qualities.
Such an evaluation is subjective — one person may evaluate someone's character on the basis of their virtue, another may consider their fortitude, courage, loyalty, honesty, or piety