Texas Review of Law & Politics, Volume 20, Number 2, Spring 2016 Page: 172
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Texas Review of Law & Politics
States Senator. Most important of all, she's the new mother to a
baby boy, Gabriel, my son-my son, Gabriel Cotton-because
Susan Grant was my wife's stage name in Hollywood.
I tell this improbable story to demonstrate my larger point. The
character we display and the example it sets extend far beyond our
ability to comprehend. Barbara never met my wife, and she could
not have known that her example would inspire Anna at critical
moments in Anna's life.
How does one develop such character? The word itself comes
from a Greek word that means "to etch or engrave."' This suggests
that a lot of work must be done to develop character, and once
done, it will be lasting. Aristotle, the first great teacher of character,
wrote a lot about this concept.2 The only way to develop character
is the hard way: the way of making each choice, each day for a
thousand days and then for a thousand more, the way of listening
to one's conscience when pleasure beckons or pain repels, of
developing one's judgment to see good both in the circumstances
immediately present and the eternal truths.3
Aristotle teaches that true virtue isn't merely knowing the good,
but also doing it.4 He.says we are not studying in order to know
what virtue is, but to become good,5 for otherwise there would be
no profit in it. The key to character development for Aristotle is
practical wisdom: the ability to observe circumstances combined
with the knowledge of right principles, to reach sound judgments
in moral matters.6 The habitual exercise of practicalwisdom in
every situation is what ultimately leads to virtue.7 But, Aristotle
observes, "to do all this to the right person, to the-right extent, at
the right time, for the right reason, and in the right way is no
longer something easy .... [wherefore] good conduct is rare,
praiseworthy, and noble."8
1. Character, MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY (11 th ed. 2008).
2. See generally ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS (Martin Ostwald trans., Prentice Hall
1999).
3. Id. at 33-35 (explaining how intellectual and moral virtue. is the result of good
habits).
4. Id. at 38-40.
5. Id. at 35 ("[W]e are not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but
in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it.").
6. Id. at 152-54 (defining the virtue of practical wisdom). Some translations call this
same virtue "prudence." See, e.g., ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 89-90 (Terence Irwin
trans., Hackett Publishing 2d ed. 1999).
7. ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 170-73 (Martin Ostwald trans., Prentice Hall
1999) (showing that the virtue of practical wisdom is tied to "virtue in the full sense").
8. ARISTOTLE, supra note 2, at 50.172
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University of Texas at Austin. School of Law. Texas Review of Law & Politics, Volume 20, Number 2, Spring 2016, periodical, March 2016; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth838701/m1/18/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.