This colloquium talk is planned as an in-person event. Registration is only required for non-CEU members.
ABSTRACT
Heraclitus once suggested that character is destiny, and the idea has been repeated so many times over the centuries, that it is, by now, an aphorism. If character is destiny, then character is in tension with freedom, that is: whoever has character is unfree. On the other hand, however, situationists allege that whoever lacks character, lacks freedom. They argue that people without characters are pushed and pulled in different directions depending on the circumstances they find themselves in. But surely, this story goes, actions driven by situational factors cannot be free.
So which is it? Is character necessary for freedom or incompatible with it? This is the question I seek to answer in this talk.
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