Socrates as Intellectual Character Builder

Our aim in this paper is to argue that Socrates is an intellectual character builder. We show that the Socratic Method, properly understood, is a tool for developing the intellectual character of students. It motivates agents towards the truth and helps them to develop the cognitive skills to gain knowledge of the truth. We further elucidate this proposal by comparing the Socratic Method, so understood, with the widely held contemporary view that the epistemic aim of education is the development of the intellectual virtues.

The Actuality of Aristotelian Virtues

Aristotle defined the ethical and intellectual virtues which are recognized as fundamental even today. Contemporary virtue ethics still takes into account Aristotelian virtues. The modern moral philosophers have tried to find new ethical values in a society in which religions are in decline and the old values lost their meaning. The starting point of their research has been Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics” which has remained the most important work in ethics influencing the philosophical thinking until nowadays. This paper seeks to explain the actual importance of the cardinal Aristotelian virtues and how they are seen today.

Some Key Issues in the Evaluation of Character Education

This article summarizes issues in defining character education (CE) that are relevant to program development and evaluation. No authoritative definition exists for CE, but several features seem prominent. These include a focus on enhancing civic, moral, self-regulatory, and/or intellectual virtues; and (at least implicitly) prioritizing the shaping of participant identity over teaching skills. Within these broad parameters, programs vary widely in their targets and interventions. They can also vary in terms of emphasizing the same or individualized elements of character across students. The discussion finishes with a summary of elements of a CE program, and a call for well-planned evaluations.

Forgiveness and the Repairing of Epistemic Trust

The epistemic relevance of forgiveness has been neglected by both the discussion of forgiveness in moral psychology and by social epistemology generally. Moral psychology fails to account for the forgiveness of epistemic wrongs and for the way that wrongs in general have epistemic implications. Social epistemology, for its part, neglects the way that epistemic trust is not only conferred but repaired. In this essay, I show that the repair of epistemic trust through forgiveness is necessary to the economy of knowledge for fallible persons like us. Despite the fact that forgiveness is never included on lists of important intellectual virtues or epistemic activities, it is vital to our lives as social knowers. Likewise, an account of forgiveness that neglects its epistemic dimension is importantly incomplete.

Potencialidades do uso de tirinhas na pedagogia de projetos: educação geográfica em questão

O presente artigo faz reflexões em torno da potencialidade da pedagogia de projetos para o ensino da educação geográfica. Visa compreender como o gênero textual tirinhas pode ser uma interessante estratégia para o desenvolvimento da metodologia ancorada em pedagogia projetos com vistas a pensar educação geográfica. Para isso, foi realizado um estudo bibliográfico sobre pedagogia de projetos, educação geográfica e tirinhas. Na primeira parte discutimos o que é pedagogia de projetos e diferenciamos educação geográfica de ensino de geografia. Na segunda parte, delimitamos o semiárido como um tema a ser trabalhado na pedagogia de projetos. Na terceira, evidenciamos como a pedagogia de projetos pode potencializar a articulação entre diferentes conhecimentos, como o geográfico e o textual, em que as tirinhas se insurgem como interessante estratégia de ensino de questões geográficas a partir das especificidades do gênero textual. E na última, mas não menos importante, discutimos sobre o gênero textual tirinhas e suas potencialidades para se fazer uma educação pautada na produção de virtudes intelectuais. Como resultado evidenciamos que as tirinhas geram a condição de produção de interdisciplinaridade, fato que torna a educação geográfica mais interessante, dinâmica e possibilitadora da criatividade e inventividade dos estudantes.Palavras-Chave: Pedagogia de Projetos. Educação Geográfica. Tirinhas.Potentials of the use of stripes in project pedagogy: geographical education in questionABSTRACTThis article reflects on the potential of project pedagogy for teaching geographical education. Aims to understand how the textual genre can be an interesting strategy for the development of methodology anchored in pedagogy projects with a view to thinking geographical education. For this, a bibliographical study was carried out on project pedagogy, geographic education and comic strips. In the first part we discuss what is project pedagogy and differentiate geographical education from geography teaching. In the second part, we delimit the semiarid as a theme to be worked on in project pedagogy. In the third, we highlight how project pedagogy can potentialize the articulation between different knowledge, such as geographical and textual, in which the comic strips appear as an interesting strategy for teaching geographical issues based on the specificities of the textual genre. And last but not least, we discuss about the textual genre comic strips and their potential to make an education based on the production of intellectual virtues. As a result, we show that the comic strips generate the condition of production of interdisciplinarity, a fact that makes geographic education more interesting, dynamic and enabling the creativity and inventiveness of students.Keywords: Project Pedagogy. Geographical Education. Comic Strips.Potencialidades del uso de historietas en la pedagogía de proyectos: educación geográfica en cuestiónRESUMENEste artículo reflexiona sobre el potencial de la pedagogía del proyecto para enseñar educación geográfica. Su objetivo es comprender cómo las historietas del género textual pueden ser una estrategia interesante para el desarrollo de la metodología anclada en proyectos de pedagogía con miras a pensar en la educación geográfica. Para ello, se realizó un estudio bibliográfico sobre pedagogía del proyecto, educación geográfica y historietas. En la primera parte, discutimos qué es la pedagogía del proyecto y diferenciamos la educación geográfica de la enseñanza de geografía. En la segunda parte, definimos el semiárido como un tema para trabajar en la pedagogía de los proyectos. En el tercero, mostramos cómo la pedagogía de los proyectos puede mejorar la articulación entre diferentes conocimientos, como el geográfico y el textual, en el que las historietas emergen como una estrategia interesante para enseñar temas geográficos basados en las especificidades del género textual. Y en el último, pero no menos importante, discutimos el género textual de las historietas y su potencial para una educación basada en la producción de virtudes intelectuales. Como resultado, mostramos que las tiras generan la condición de producción de interdisciplinariedad, un hecho que hace que la educación geográfica sea más interesante, dinámica y permite la creatividad e inventiva de los estudiantes.Palabras clave: Pedagogía del Proyecto. Educación Geográfica Tiras.

Moral and Intellectual Virtues: On the Relation between Detached Contemplation and Political Prudence

The classical Aristotelean distinction between moral and intellectual virtues has come to us as one of the first explicit conceptualizations of a realm of knowledge and a realm of action. This paper intends to analyze the meaning of that distinction according to an alternative hypothesis, namely, that the moral and intellectual virtues correspond to a profound understanding of the relation between the philosophical and the political life. The analysis will be guided by the relatively unclear relation between phrónesis and sophía, and by the subtle but remarkable differences that Thomas Aquinas introduces in his systematization of virtues, e.g., his explicit flight from this life as the goal of contemplation. Aquinas’ understanding of theoría or contemplation will shed light on the basis of Aristotle’s concern with virtues—the tension between philosophy and politics that must be mediated by a resourceful prudence.

Unity of the intellectual virtues

The idea that moral virtues form some sort of “unity” has received considerable attention from virtue theorists. In this paper, I argue that the possibility of unity among intellectual virtues has been wrongly overlooked. My approach has two main components. First, I work to distinguish the variety of different views that are available under the description of a unity thesis. I suggest that these views can be categorised depending on whether they are versions of standard unity or of strong unity. Standard unity claims that the possession of one virtue implies possession of all the others. Strong unity claims that the virtues are, in some sense, all the same thing. By exploring what these different versions of unity would look like when applied to intellectual virtues, I aim to provide a menu of options for future work in virtue epistemology. I then develop and defend one of these options in more detail, arguing that the initially less plausible strong unity has merit when applied to the intellectual sphere. In these two ways, I aim to show that the possibility of unity among the intellectual virtues is deserving of serious consideration.