Miskawaih’s Thoughts on Human Personality

Abstract

This paper aims at highlighting the views of Miskawaih on human personality. According to Miskawaih, personality is not the product of free interaction between ones' heredity and physical and social environment; it is born of the conflict between the rational and irrational parts of the self leading to the emergence of a strong moral conscience which serves as the intrinsic core of khulq, a term that Miskwaih uses for personality. Man possesses personality because he is capable of reason as well as being subject to desires.