Psychological explanations that stop at irreducible character traits beg the question

Evidence

But most important of all, these “psychological” explanations refer us ultimately to inexplicable original givens. These are the simple bodies of psychology. We are told, for example, that Flaubert had a “grandiose ambition” and all of the previously quoted description depends on this original ambition. So far so good. But this ambition is an irreducible fact which by no means satisfies the mind. The irreducibility here has no justification other than refusal to push the analysis further. There where the psychologist stops, the fact confronted is given as primary. This is why we experience a troubled feeling of mingled resignation and dissatisfaction when we read these psychological treatises. “See,” we say to ourselves, “Flaubert was ambitious. He was that kind of man.” It would be as futile to ask why he was such as to seek to know why he was tall and blond. Of course we have to stop somewhere; it is the very contingency of all real existence. This rock is covered with moss, the rock next to it is not. Gustave Flaubert had literary ambition, and his brother Achille lacked it. That’s the way it is. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1322

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes psychological ‘simple bodies’ (irreducible fact-persons like Flaubert’s ambition) from what Sartre argues are meaningful, free choices that demand further analysis.
• XREF: This refusal to treat character as brute fact connects directly to Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics—her insistence that the Other’s freedom cannot be a neutral given. It also reads as a direct critique of the naturalist/positivist psychology Sartre opposes. — connects to: Character emerges from unresolved inner contradiction — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1156; Ascribing inner dispositions essentializes stereotyped traits into fixed group character. — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice: Society,…, 592; Trolling is a personality-driven abuse of conversational decorum linked to sadism and psychopathy — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 986

Broader Connections

• Character emerges from unresolved inner contradiction #corroborates (0.85) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1156
• Ascribing inner dispositions essentializes stereotyped traits into fixed group character. #corroborates (0.75) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 592