Intellectual virtues
Character traits necessary for right action and correct thinking. They include: intellectual sense of justice, intellectual perseverance, intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual empathy, intellectual courage, confidence in reason, and intellectual autonomy.
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Aristotle
Aristotle analyzed virtues into moral and intellectual virtues (dianoetic virtues, the Greek aretai dianoetikai). In the Posterior Analytics and Nicomachean Ethics he identified five intellectual virtues - as the five ways the soul arrives at truth by affirmation or denial. He grouped them into three classes:
- Theoretical:
- Practical:
- Phronesis -i.e. practical wisdom/prudence.
- Productive:
- Techne -i.e. craft knowledge, art, skill.
Subjecent intellectual virtues in Aristotle:
- Euboulia. Deliberating well, deliberative excellence. Thinking properly about the right end.
- Sunesis. Understanding, sagacity, consciousness of why something is as it is. - e.g the understanding you have of why a situation is as it is, prior to having phronesis - understanding of what to do about it -i.e what is the best action.
- Gnomê. Judgement and consideration. Virtue which allows people to make equitable or fair decisions.
- Deinotes. Cleverness. The ability to carry out actions so as to achieve a goal.
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References
- Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics Book VI.
- Thomas Hobbes On Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan. Chapter VIII: Of the Virtues Commonly Called Intellectual, and Their Contrary Defects
- R. M. Paul Critical thinking: What every person needs to survive in a rapidly changing world, (Rev. 2nd ed.). Santa Rosa, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1992.
- Michael DePaul et Linda Zagzebski, Intellectual Virtue, Oxford, Oxford U. Press. 2003.
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See also
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External links
- Virtue Epistemology, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Critical Thinking Glossary: An Educator's Guide to Critical Thinking Terms and Concept
