Character, Essence, Action: Considerations on Character Traits after Sartre

Margaret Gilbert, University of Connecticut, Storrs

Introduction

Character trait ascriptions are a prominent part of human discourse. Nonetheless, until recently the question of what character traits amount to has attracted relatively little interest from contemporary Anglo-American philosophers. The philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre has also been relatively neglected by these philosophers, exceptions including Mary Warnock, Iris Murdoch, and Marjorie Grene. As it happens, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness is an important source for those interested in character traits.