Self improvement.

Striving for Personal Perfection: Rudolf Allers’s Psycho-Ethic-Metaphysical Approach to Character and Self-Improvement

“…Allers stated that the essence of human existence is self-perfection, that is, striving for the good or, at least, the love for it. This is “the great motive force driving the world along its path” (Allers, 1939 , p. 125). Self-perfection, understood as “the actualization or the becoming really existent of all the qualities originally existing only potentially within the individual” (Allers, 1939 , p. 125), is the main good that everyone strives for.…”

“…This is “the great motive force driving the world along its path” (Allers, 1939 , p. 125). Self-perfection, understood as “the actualization or the becoming really existent of all the qualities originally existing only potentially within the individual” (Allers, 1939 , p. 125), is the main good that everyone strives for. Therefore, self-perfection entails self-improvement, which can be understood in a double sense: as an end in itself and as a process.…”

“…According to Allers, character, as “the principle of action” (Allers, 1943 , p. 47), is revealed through personal actions related to values, the “general rule of principle of behavior (…) based on the idea one has of the order of values [is] the common principle underlying a man’s actions, which principle refers to values” (Allers, 1939 , p. 54).…”

“…Changing character involves self-knowledge. Therefore, for self-improvement, one has to know him/herself, which is not easy because—among other possible factors—character is a whole structure, so that a small change in one piece alters the whole set (Allers, 1939 ): Self-knowledge, as it is needed for self-improvement, has to be more than a knowledge of this or that single imperfection or bad habit or faulty inclination. Character and personality are not built up from single bits as a mosaic is built up from single small stones.…”

“…For this reason, it is so important to educate character as a whole through proper practice, but by working on each specific aspect of the character because the whole is, in its totality, unfathomable. A human being is not only an individual, but also, and above all, a person who is “a free and reasonable being that is master, up to a certain extent, of its own nature [and has the] peculiar faculty of being capable of forming and molding himself [which is] the basis of all self-education and self-improvement” (Allers, 1939 , p. 30). Likewise, people are different from each other.…”