We are not born good, but we naturally are adapted to become so. And this adaptation means building character by habit and training on a basis of free choice. “Neither by nature nor contrary to nature do the moral excellences arise in us,” Aristotle says, “rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and made perfect by habit” (Nichomachean Ethics, 1103a 24–26). Aristotle was much interested in the role of stress and pressure in life situations because of his profound concern with the distinction between actions that are performed in force situations and those that are freely chosen.
