“We are all familiar with the notion of a moral virtue: traits such as generosity, compassion, courage, temperance, and patience. These are well-anchored, abiding personal qualities we acquire that reliably dispose us to think, feel, and behave in certain ways when circumstances demand it. … Intellectual virtues have received less attention: these include character traits such as wisdom, prudence, foresight, understanding, discernment, truthfulness, and studiousness, among others. … An epistemology that takes the virtues seriously claims that our ability to lay hold of the truth about important matters turns on more than our IQ or the caliber of school we attend; it also depends on whether we have fostered within ourselves virtuous habits of mind. Our careers as cognitive agents, as persons concerned to lay hold of the truth and pursue other important intellectual goals, will in large measure succeed or fail as we cultivate our intellectual virtues.
“Thinking about epistemology as encompassing the pursuit of intellectual virtue, while presently unfashionable, was the dominant way of casting epistemological concerns in the writings of Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and other philosophers of the ancient and medieval tradition. Your intellectual life is important, according to these thinkers, for the simple reason that your very character, the kind of person you are and are becoming, is at stake. Careful oversight of our intellectual lives is imperative if we are to think well, and thinking well is an indispensable ingredient in living well. According to this tradition, only by superintending our cognitive life (the way, for example, we form, defend, maintain, revise, abandon, and act on our beliefs about important matters) can we become excellent as thinkers and, ultimately, excellent as person.
“If we fail to oversee our intellectual life and cultivate virtue, the likely consequence will be a maimed and stunted mind that thwarts our prospects for living a flourishing life.”
“Thinking about epistemology as encompassing the pursuit of intellectual virtue, while presently unfashionable, was the dominant way of casting epistemological concerns in the writings of Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and other philosophers of the ancient and medieval tradition. Your intellectual life is important, according to these thinkers, for the simple reason that your very character, the kind of person you are and are becoming, is at stake. Careful oversight of our intellectual lives is imperative if we are to think well, and thinking well is an indispensable ingredient in living well. According to this tradition, only by superintending our cognitive life (the way, for example, we form, defend, maintain, revise, abandon, and act on our beliefs about important matters) can we become excellent as thinkers and, ultimately, excellent as person.
“If we fail to oversee our intellectual life and cultivate virtue, the likely consequence will be a maimed and stunted mind that thwarts our prospects for living a flourishing life.”
~ Taken from chapter 1 of my second textbook for my philosophy class, Epistemology: Becoming Intellectually Virtuous by W. Jay Wood.
Need I say that I am fascinated and loving it??? It is classes like this that make me wish I had a traditional semester’s length in which to enjoy it to the fullest, rather than the 8-week setting, which feels so short when I’m really loving a class. I fully intend to read this book again once I have officially finished classes in July. I know there are many other gems hidden in its pages that I simply will not have time to mine in the course of this class.
1 comment:
Perhaps instead of rereading your textbook you should read the original works by Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. I haven't read them in full myself, but if you are enjoying the taste you are getting from the text book you might enjoy digging deeper and reading their writings in full.
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