The Aristotelian model of character and character formation

The notion of character has recently come under dispute. Skeptics about character (e.g. John Doris, Gilbert Harman) deny that there is anything like cross-situational consistent and temporally stable traits of character, while philosophers and psychologists who defend the significance of character (among them e.g. supporters of affection theory) often draw on what is taken to be an Aristotelian model of character and character formation. Against this background, my talk tries to pin down the key features of Aristotle’s notion of character and his account of character formation.