Cultivating Character: Introduction

The six consilient virtues, spoons and stews, and well-being vs. ill-being

What positive characteristics are worth valuing and cultivating? What core capacities produce a good person? How can we thrive in our everyday lives? What positive qualities can all humans agree enhance well-being and produce meaningful lives?

These were questions that motivated the psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin E.P. Seligman to lead a project, involving over fifty distinguished social scientists, that attempted to establish the most critical positive character traits required to promote human well-being. The answers they found were documented in their book Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification¹.

This series will be in large part a reanimation of their findings, which themselves are a unification and dissemination of global wisdom that (I believe) holds eternal relevance towards understanding how to thrive as a Homo sapiens. No matter who you are, the strengths outlined throughout this series will be applicable to you and those you love, and careful and deliberate cultivation of these strengths will yield a garden rich in meaning, well-being, and personal growth.

---

Peterson and Seligman’s book includes an extensive review of the world's major religions and philosophies, of which include: the Eastern traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism; and the Western traditions of Athenian philosophy and Abrahamic religion (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Upon this review, the authors found a set of recurring virtues shared by each tradition; namely: courage, humanity, justice, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence.

I have dubbed these six core virtues as the consilient virtues. For those unfamiliar with the term consilience, it refers to the idea that different branches of knowledge are interconnected and can be unified through their commonalities. The consilient virtues are the virtues that interconnect and unify the different branches of philosophical and religious thought that have flourished alongside the evolution of humanity.

Understandably, some skeptics may note that minority traditions are missing from those previously listed. With minority traditions, an extensive review becomes more challenging; we can't quite profit from vast literary repositories like we can with more popular traditions. Though, the authors do reference field research that confirms the presence of the consilient virtues in the traditions of the Masaai of western Kenya and the Inughuit of northern Greenland².

If you're still skeptical, try replacing the consilient virtues with some of their antonyms, and ask yourself whether a group of humans would really endorse raising cowardly, anti-social, dishonest, over-indulgent, stupid, and ungrateful children. Seems unlikely.

Spoons and stew

What distinguishes human traditions from one another tend to be the methods of delivery of the consilient virtues: the stories and customs. To help drive this insight home, I've cooked up what I call the spoon and stew analogy. Let's consider traditional customs (institutions, rituals, etc.)—the technologies developed to transmit knowledge—as spoons. Let’s consider the traditional pools of knowledge—the manuals and stories—as stews, whose macro-nutrients are the consilient virtues.

Spoons

The spoons we use may be different; some are made of plastic, some porcelain; some have unique shapes, some have intricate designs. We, the users, also have our differences, so different spoons may be better or less suited to accommodate each of our needs. When we grow up using a particular spoon we also grow into that spoon, preferring its use over others.

Many of the spoons that are still around today are durable and reliable, having withstood the test of time. Humanity will certainly create more spoons in the future; some will work, some won't.

What really matters is whether the spoons can deliver the stew into our mouths. It’s okay to be critical of the structural aspects of spoons, to ask if their handles can be held (“Are members able to engage with the customs?”) or their heads can hold stew (“Can their customs hold knowledge?”). At the end of the day, however, they are spoons; they share significantly more commonalities than differences.

But we often focus on the decorative aspects of the spoons, be it the colors or the engravings, as it is these aspects that capture attention. We flaunt the symbolic features of our spoon, brandishing them as badges of excellence. We jab our fingers at the symbolic features of other spoons, using them as reasons for distrust.

But the decorative aspects are simply creative expressions; they have little influence on what we should sincerely care about: the delivery of the stew and the stew itself. Many petty tribal clashes are over why our spoons are good and why their spoons are bad—or worse, why our spoons look good and why their spoons look bad—when in reality every group develops their spoon to feed themselves the same macro-nutrients as every other tribe.

Stew

Just as our spoons are different, so are our stews. The proportions of the macro-nutrients vary slightly from group to group. This creates different flavors; some stews are sweeter, some fattier, some meatier.

Many of the stews still around today are appetizing and nutritionally robust, having withstood the test of time. Humanity will certainly whip up more recipes in the future; some will be healthy, some won't.

Like with the spoons, it’s okay to be critical of stews, to ask if the stew is nutritious (“Does the knowledge base promote good character?”) or digestible (“Are the lessons comprehensible?”).

And like with spoons, when we grow up eating a particular stew we grow into it, savoring its familiarity. But just because we prefer our stews doesn’t mean the other stews are inedible. We can always try other stews; we can always learn from other traditions. Trying different recipes expands your palette and spices up life. And while there’s nothing necessarily wrong with being picky (everyone has their tastes), pickiness tends not to stem from something tasting bad, but rather an unwillingness to confront the unknown.

We start to run into problems when we conflate our subjective pickiness with a stew objectively tasting bad. Some of us may try to convince others to avoid other stews, claiming they’re disgusting, when in reality we are succumbing to fear and ignorance.

Despite their differences, the essence of all good stews remains the same. As the work of Peterson and Seligman shows, the essence lies within the macro-nutrients—the consilient virtues. And like with the spoons, the stews are more similar than they are different. There is more than enough stew to go around, but we can't feed ourselves if we're too busy waving our spoons at each other and spitting criticisms about each others’ recipes.

---

Your spoon will likely be some combination of prebuilt features with some personal zest. Traditional customs can be seen as traditional habits, and tradition acts at many scales. We have collective traditional habits (e.g., collective prayer, education, or play) and personal traditional habits (e.g., reading the morning newspaper, going for an evening stroll). Our habits are what deliver the stew into our mouths.

If you only ever flaunt your spoon, never making the effort to feed yourself with it, you will not build character. If you never make the effort to actively practice what you preach, you will not build the character that your tradition preaches. Furthermore, you need to ensure that you're shoveling stew and not sludge, because sludge tastes good too—we all too often consume it, feeding our regressive, passive, and meaningless habits, and wonder why we starve for meaning.

You are responsible for scooping the stew into your mouth, even if it’s cumbersome. You are responsible for maintaining the awareness required to avoid inadvertently gorging mouthfuls of sludge. The more consistent and deliberate the positive practice, the more feeding yourself stew (and not sludge) becomes a habit, the greater your growth of character. Good character reverberates to everyone around you; once you feed yourself, you can feed others.

Well-being vs. Ill-being

“Rotten wood cannot be carved” - (Analects, V:9)

Lucky for us, character growth was the bread and butter of Peterson and Seligman. Both are significant contributors to the field of positive psychology, a field which attempts to promote human flourishing by highlighting and promoting our strengths.

The strength-centered approach of positive psychology is strikingly different than that of traditional psychology, which opts for a more problem-centered approach that seeks to diagnose and treat psychological problems as they arise. While treatments (such as medication and therapy) are necessary to address psychological issues once they've arisen, most treatments provided by traditional psychology produce temporary relief from distress to temporarily restore normal functioning. These treatments tend to be reactive, not preventative³. Positive psychology, on the other hand, emphasizes prevention and enhancement, with the belief that actively promoting personal resilience and well-being prevents the emergence of psychological illnesses.

Let’s solidify this distinction with an example that portrays the traditional approach. Take medication, for instance. While having its merits, medication often only address the proximate causes of illnesses, not the ultimate causes. Consider someone who is chronically online and develops depression due to cyber-induced seclusion. In this case, psychological despair is the proximate cause (the symptom) of this individual’s illness, and the ultimate cause (why the symptoms arose) may be a lack of genuine connection with others. To cope with the distress, this individual may be prescribed medication that alleviates their depressive symptoms. Unfortunately, this alleviation also inadvertently allows them to crawl back into their digital nook, which further perpetuates the cycle of loneliness, depression, and dependence on medication.

Temporary relief allows us to return to normal; but, when we get sick, normal is often what got us sick in the first place. Our goal should instead be to elevate our normal so that we’re no longer wading around in shit, especially when our mind and body are sending us signals that our normal isn't working. Rather than sedating ourselves with medication, media, and McDonald's, the long-term approach to flourishing, as vouched by ancient schools of wisdom, is to actively promote our strengths. Rather than supplementing our lives with things that feel great, the path to peace and well-being requires the effortful and meaningful approach of making ourselves great.

The catch is that feeling better requires less energy investment than does being better. There’s nothing wrong with indulging from time to time, but it’s important to recognize our natural inclination to favor feeling good over being good. Not only that, but we are surrounded by sedative and hedonistic enterprises that relentlessly try to tip that inclination further. Corporations are naturally incentivized to encourage indulgence, to encourage vulnerable consumers to sluggishly shovel slop (unhealthy and addictive products) into their mouths, because persistent dependence on products is what rakes in the dough.

Though, just as easily as that pleasure comes, it goes. Feeling great is harder to hold onto; an endless pursuit that leaves us perpetually unsatisfied and malnourished (and perpetually feeds the pockets of opportunistic entities). Developing your character liberates you from these shackles of perpetual dissatisfaction, so long as you ensure you're developing in the right direction. When we manage to develop rightly, we chip away at the chains of regressive dependencies (e.g., alcohol and TikTok) and cultivate progressive dependencies (e.g., friends and family). In other words, the more satisfied we are with ourselves, the less we reach for external supplements to escape dissatisfaction.

Acknowledging the monumental forces that hold us back and facing them with humility is the first step to liberation. And since the forces are monumental, we needn’t be ashamed for struggling against them. The next step is to muster enough courage to start climbing the meaningless mountains, step-by-step, leaving behind flowers of meaning in our wake. The higher we get, the better the view.

---

Throughout the series we’ll be delving into each of the positive character traits that the world's major religions and philosophies have converged upon: courage, humanity, justice, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence. Given their historical and global prevalence, and coherence with modern scientific findings, these virtues are probably worth paying close attention to. One by one, we will expand on why each virtue is worth cultivating, and how we may go about cultivating it.

Consider this series as a how-to guide on cultivating a garden of character rich in macro-nutrients, whose bounties will be plopped into your stew. We’ll find that the ingredients complement each other, so we’ll need each ingredient (virtue) to make a well-rounded and hearty stew (good character). But the proportions of what you grow will be up to you; create your own flavor and enjoy! In the next post, we will be taking a look at the first ingredient that helps promote healthy character: courage.

1. Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford University Press.

2. Biswas-Diener, R. From the Equator to the North Pole: A Study of Character Strengths. J Happiness Stud 7, 293–310 (2006).

3. Some may be alarmed by the labeling of therapy as a reactive treatment. Therapy is not always reactive; regular therapy attendance is certainly a preventative measure. But we tend to go to therapy after we’ve reach a psychological tipping point, and only go back once we’re distressed again. It’s like going to a dentist once we already have a toothache. Sure, the dentist can fill the cavity or pull the tooth, but that’s pretty much all they can do. You’d have been much better off if you flossed and brushed regularly.