Consider Character as Clay

I’m impressed by the similarities in the Buddhist ethical views described here and those of Aristotle, who held that habits form our moral character, as well as the existentialists, who claimed that existence precedes essence.

“According to Buddhism, humans have free will, and in the exercise of free will they engage in self-determination,” Damien Keown wrote in his book Buddhism. “In a very real sense, individuals create themselves through their moral choices. By freely and repeatedly choosing certain sorts of things, an individual shapes his character, and through his character his future. As the proverb has it: “Sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.’”

“The process maybe likened to the work of a potter who molds the clay into a finished shape: the soft clay is one’s character, and when we make moral choices we hold ourselves in our hands and shape our natures for good or ill.”

This tends to support the view known as “virtue ethics,” summarized by the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy as “…a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: ‘Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.’”