“Character”

The word “character” encapsulated Shaftesbury's answer to the problem of the self, since it referred to the qualities of consistency, unity and autonomy, founded on well-developed interiority, that defined the philosophical being and moral actor. The term's etymology, of which Shaftesbury was well aware, suggested its purchase. The noun could be traced to a complex of ideas arising from the Greek verb, kharasso, meaning, among other things, “to sharpen,” “to brand,” “to stamp,” and “to engrave.” Thus, the Greek kharaktēr had the capacity to relate contrasting ideas: while the term presupposed the malleability of the object stamped, it also implied the stability of the stamp on the object; while it referred to the outward appearance, it might also refer to an underlying pattern.

This capacity of the word kharaktēr to coordinate the self's plasticity and durability as well as its interior and exterior manifestations was evident in an Epictetan injunction, favored by Shaftesbury: “Lay down for yourself, at the outset, a certain stamp and type of character [kharaktera kai tupon] for yourself, which you are to maintain whether you are by yourself or are meeting with people.” While assuming that the self must model itself, the injunction also insisted on the durability of character. Moreover, modeling pertained to and related both the form of the inner life and the shape of self-presentation. “Character” expressed both the drive for a well-modeled inwardness and the recognition that ineluctably the self was also a social entity. In Shaftesbury's central project of forming “character,” the modeling of an outward self was as important as constructing the inward one.