Russell’s View of Character and Its Insight on Children’s Anti-Smoking Education

Abstract

Objectives: In this study, we qualitatively studied Russell’s view of character and tried to seek the insight on children’s anti-smoking education. Results: Russell’ view suggests that human character refers to human qualities which are distinguishable as good (i.e., desirable) or bad. Russell focused on desirable human qualities, and he raised that the four characteristics of human beings (i.e., vitality, courage, sharpness, and reason) together absolutely constitute the basis of an ideal personality. This standpoint stems from Russell’s assumption that human character attention can promote personal good habits and consider the details of education. This assumption has formed Russell’s view that human character can be cultivated through games and imagination, skill learning and scientific explanation, knowledge acquisition, and accuracy training. Conclusion: The findings show that Russell’s concept of human character is neutral. Russell advocates the pursuit of universal desirable character. Russell’s view of character connects children’s behavior to human character development. From Russell’ s view, children’s smoking behavior is far from four good human qualities, which is obstructive to their character development. Russell’ s insights instruct people that anti-smoking education should promote children ’ s performance spirit of anti-smoking propaganda, cultivate children’ s coping abilities of smoking allure, and guide children’ s comprehensive thinking of smoking damage.