Philosophy Book Club: The Character Gap, 3, What can we do to improve our characters?

There is a lot of talk these days about ethics and building character. Which is why I have been so keenly interested in Christian Miller’s The Character Gap, a science-based examination of what character is and how it works. (part I of my discussion is here, part II here) Besides, the whole framework of Stoicism, and virtue ethics more generally, is predicated on the notion that we can improve our character, so this is highly relevant to whoever adopts that particular approach as a compass to navigate life.

Having discussed what character is (part I), and having shown that there is a gap between where most people are and where they would like to be (part II), the last third of Miller’s book is devoted to the most practical question of them all: how do we improve our character? The discussion comprises three chapters: what doesn’t seem to work, what does seem to work, and the special case of “divine” assistance. I have written at the beginning of this series that I was going to skip that last chapter, since I don’t find the whole notion of divine assistance very meaningful, but after having read it, I will in fact devote to it the next and last entry in this series (spoiler alert: I think that one is by far the weakest of Miller’s chapters).