Moral Habituation and Settled Disposition

Aristotle argued that no one is born good or bad; we acquire the moral virtues the way we learn a craft — by practicing them. Just as we become builders by building, we become brave by doing brave deeds and temperate by acting temperately, until right action settles into a stable trait of character he called a hexis. Because habits formed in youth make "all the difference," upbringing and repeated practice, not mere instruction, are what shape a good person. The doctrine reframes ethics as training: character is something we forge, one choice at a time.