What determines an individual’s final character? Is it temperament, a natural inclination, or the force of habit, training received by others, or freewill, the choices made by the individual?
Temperament, habit and freewill all play a role in determining character.
Is an individual an ethical tabla rosa, born only to shaped by habits taught by caregivers? If so then any un-virtuous deed done by a child is the responsibility of the caregivers who trained the child in the un-virtuous habits.
Or does an inborn temperament guide individuals to become virtuous or full of vice? Are some individual simply born rotten? Are some inclined toward vicing from birth, with no chance of getting influenced by the environment?
What of freewill? Can an individual choose to do virtuous deeds despite a temperament inclined towards vice and wicked caregivers who trained him or her in bad habits?
If temperament alone determined one’s character then there could be no accountability. Deeds would be totally out of the individual’s influence. He or she would be at the mercy of his or her temperament.
If habit alone determined one’s character then again there could be no accountability. The caregivers of any child would be accountable. Yet even they could point back to their caregivers as the ones really accountable. And so on and so on forever, with no end in sight.
So then with the addition of freewill then there is an easier path for accountability. At some point every individual is accountable for their action because they have the power to make choices.
It would be foolish to ignore temperament and habit, for these also play a role. Temperament and habit do have an influence on character but none of them is exclusive.
A person inclined toward vice from his or her temperament and trained to do wicked deeds can yet make a choice to do good. So too can the individual with a virtuous temperament, virtuous parents who train him or her in virtuous habits yet make a choice to engage in vice.
It is always possible to make a new choice. It is always possible to break an old habit.