In the following discussion I want to look at the area of moral character, how individuals come to trust others and the way they identify specific moral dispositions in those others as grounds for their trust. A clear line of thought here would link the most securely grounded trust with the best moral dispositions, those whose aim in life is the maintenance of moral excellence. And we want to ask how the experience of politics affects the morally excellent.

How does moral character enter the discussion of dirty hands? A political agent who acknowledges moral guilt while carrying out political policies believed to be desirable does so from a standpoint of character: Our attention is drawn to moral identity and self-understanding. Character provides a location for both action and moral self-awareness, so that for Hegel only “by resolving can a man step into actuality, however bitter to him his resolve may be”; decision is grounded in and expressive of character – “a characterless man never reaches a decision” is Hegel's formulation.