Review Paper UDC 159.923.2:17.021.2 Received December 29 th , 2010 Vojko Strahovnik IPAK Institute and Faculty of Government and European Studies, Koroška cesta 18, SI–3320Velenje vojko.strahovnik@guest.arnes.si Identity, Character and Ethics Moral Identity and Reasons for Action Abstract The paper discusses the meaning, role and importance of moral identity and character for ethics and for leading a good life (the attainably of good life and pursuit of happiness). The modern society is a society of permanent change and the feeling of uncertainty. The world seems fragmented and discontinuous. It is very difficult to form a permanent identity in such a world. In the past the choice of the life project was the choice of all choices. In liquid modernity, identity is flexible and in a state of permanent transformation, in which one per- petually redefines oneself through becoming someone other than one has been so far. The central question from which the papers addresses these topics is whether our moral identity ever provides us with good reasons for acting and further, which of the moral theories are best suited to accommodate a positive answer to that question. Key words ethics, character, moral identity, personal reasons, virtue, art of life Introduction In his lecture (later published as an essay) titled “Existentialism is a Human- ism” (1946) Jean-Paul Sartre 1 described a case of a moral dilemma. A student approached him during the war in order to seek advice. This young man was torn between two actions and was unsure about what is the right, the morally proper thing to do. On one hand he considers joining the resistance movement and fighting against the German occupying forces that were as it happens responsible for the death of his brother. He fells a strong duty to defend his homeland and revenge his brother’s death. On the other hand he knows that his aging mother is very weak and that him going away from home would probably distress her very much, maybe even to a point of her death. What should this young man do? One often encounters interpretations of Sartre’s response to such tragic dilemmas that the proper question is not what is the morally right thing to do in such situation, but what persons should we choose to become, namely, either persons that choose to go to combat or persons that choose to stay at home with his mother. These considerations show that the resolution of such cases of moral dilemmas is in some sense linked with our identity. 1 Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism is a Human- ism”,http://www.marxists.org/reference/archi- ve/ sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm, accessed on December 1, 2010.