Espinalt's Concept of Human Will and Character and Its Consequences for Moral education

This article deals with the human will and the individual character and their relevance in the moral sphere. After introducing the conative domain, it argues for the need to have a psychological and educational model of human character. The paper presents Espinalt’s (1920-1993) concepts of will and character and their consequences for education. After having explored human will and understanding the causes for the relative lack of consideration of will by modern psychology, a definition of character is presented as a result of exercising human will. Three different dimensions of character are considered: One more connected with instincts, another with culture, and the most distinctive of individual self-engraving. The third dimension leads to different considerations of education that are briefly explained. The Espinaltian vision is contrasted with other contemporary visions of human will and character. The social and historical forces with an influence on the education of the character
are also considered. Finally the paper argues for the centrality of these
approaches for a moral education which is based on Aristotelian views.