Improving Character

Develop moral virtues through forty-five accessible and practical essays

Character development requires both understanding what moral virtues look like and how to cultivate them. Improving Character: Moral Virtues, Strategies, and Questions assembles forty-five newly commissioned essays that are concise, engaging, and largely jargon-free to make virtues and character cultivation immediately accessible without sacrificing philosophical depth or rigor.

The volume begins with chapters on the need for character improvement and why moral virtue is good for us. Next it covers sixteen moral virtues including courage, patience, temperance, honesty, humility, gratitude, generosity, and justice. It then presents sixteen practical strategies for character development such as friendship, role models, nudging, good manners, disrupting social norms, running, and journaling. Ten essays address challenging questions about the whole enterprise. It closes with Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol as a cautionary tale.

Readers will also find:

• Portraits of virtues drawn from Western philosophy alongside ancient Chinese and Buddhist traditions for broader cross-cultural perspectives on character
• Practical strategies that move beyond theory to actionable guidance on developing specific virtues through everyday activities and relationships
• Critical questions examining how we measure character improvement and determine which traits genuinely are moral virtues
• Essays designed specifically for undergraduate students and general readers seeking philosophical substance without intimidating technical vocabulary
• An unusual blend of theoretical foundations and practical application rarely found together in philosophy texts

Written for first-year undergraduates and general readers interested in personal development, Improving Character serves students taking courses in virtue ethics, practical ethics, ethical leadership, and professional ethics programs. Its trade-style orientation makes it equally valuable for character development in athletics, high schools, and personal goal setting.

Robert J. Hartman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy (effective fall 2026) at Ohio Northern University. He previously held research fellowships at Tulane University, Stockholm University, and the University of Gothenburg. He is the author of In Defense of Moral Luck and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Psychology of Luck. His articles appear in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Studies, European Journal of Philosophy, and the Journal of the American Philosophical Association.