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 .

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:
  • Sophia -i.e. wisdom of the eternal and unchangeable, philosophical wisdom.
  • Episteme -i.e. scientific knowledge, empirical knowledge.
  • Nous -i.e. intuitive understanding.
• 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.

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.

See Also

• Intellectual dishonesty
• Critical thinking
• Paideia
• Virtue ethics
• Epistemic virtue

External links

• The Intellectual and Moral Virtues of the Critical Person
• Virtue Epistemology, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Critical Thinking Glossary: An Educator's Guide to Critical Thinking Terms and Concept