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 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies: Whither and whence?

In 1933 nine scholars from the University of Toronto and its affiliated colleges met to establish the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS), which thus became the oldest academic society in Canada. This article examines the CSBS’s early history with a special focus on its purpose and intellectual stance. From there it moves to chart an impression of the Society’s current achievements, activities and intellectual character. This leads to a brief assessment of the challenges that face the CSBS in the future.

Faculty Recruitment and Formation

This chapter addresses the challenging question of how to sustain a distinctive religious intellectual tradition while hiring people who are diverse in multiple ways. It singles out multiple misunderstandings of what it means to “hire for mission,” defends the intellectual character of the mission of Catholic education, and gives examples of how to run workshops for faculty to hire for the mission of a Catholic university. Once faculty are hired, the next step is to give examples of how the continued formation of faculty in their academic disciplines can contribute with integrity to the Catholic educational mission. Structural elements, including appointments to chaired positions, the building of core curricula, and the importance of interdisciplinary research, can strengthen the mission of a Catholic university.

Nosodes and Their Indications in Homoeopathy

In homoeopathy, the choice of remedy is based on a consideration of the totality of an individual's symptoms and circumstances, including personality, behaviours, fears, responses to the physical environment, food preferences and so on. Dr. Hahnemann gives a fair idea on the importance of the constitution in Aphorism 5 of Organon of Medicine, wherein he sates “Useful to the physician in assisting him to cure are the particulars of the most probable exciting cause of the acute disease, as also the most significant points in the whole history of the chronic disease, to enable him to discover its fundamental cause, which is generally due to a chronic Miasms. In these investigations, the ascertainable physical constitution of the patient (and intellectual character, his occupation, mode of living and habits, his social and domestic relations, his age, sexual function, etc., are to be taken into consideration. He mainly refers constitution to the inherent in the natural frame, or inherent nature of the individual. Hahnemann reviewed the use of miasms as homoeopathic remedies and pointed out that what Hering was suggesting was not the same old isopathic methods because the material used was potentised by the homoeopathic technique and given in minimal dose. This changes an ordinary isopathic substance into a homoeopathic remedy if used properly.

The Excellent Mind

What makes for a good education? What does one need to count as well educated? Knowledge, to be sure. But knowledge is easily forgotten, and today’s knowledge may be obsolete tomorrow. Skills, particularly in critical thinking, are crucial as well. But absent the right motivation, graduates may fail to put their skills to good use. In this book, Nathan King argues that intellectual virtues—traits like curiosity, intellectual humility, honesty, intellectual courage, and open-mindedness—are central to any education worthy of the name. Further, such virtues are crucial to our functioning well in everyday life, in areas as diverse as personal relationships, responsible citizenship, civil discourse, and personal success. Our struggles in these areas often result from a failure to think virtuously. Drawing upon recent work in philosophy and psychology, the book paints a portrait of virtuous intellectual character—and of the vices such a character opposes. Filled with examples and applications, this book introduces readers to the intellectual virtues: what they are, why they matter, and how we can grow in them.

How We Grow in Intellectual Virtue

This chapter provides a framework and suggestions for growth in intellectual virtue. It likens our growth in intellectual virtue to a trip to an important destination. Any well-planned trip requires a clear destination, an assessment of our current location, and a map from getting from where we are to where we want to go. Likewise, any good plan for growth in intellectual virtue requires a clear conception of intellectual virtue, an accurate assessment of our current intellectual character, and paths from getting from our current character to a more virtuous one. Chapters 1–11 provide the clear conception needed here. This chapter considers our current intellectual character by introducing the well-known categories of continence and incontinence. It suggests that many of us exhibit neither virtues nor vices, but rather, traits—like continence or incontinence—that lie between the two. It closes with several suggestions for growth in intellectual virtue, including help from friends and mentors, emulation of exemplars, and specific, intelligent practice.

The Intellectual Virtues

This chapter explores the nature of intellectual character virtues, as a way of preparing the reader for the rest of the book, which explores individual virtues in detail. After providing a list of important intellectual virtues and some examples of these virtues “in action,” the chapter proceeds to discuss the structure of virtues. It identifies intellectual virtues as excellent traits of character involving thought, behavior, and motivation in relation to knowledge. The chapter then introduces a model for understanding intellectual virtues that parallels Aristotle’s account of the moral virtues. Specifically, many intellectual virtues stand as a mean between vices of deficiency and excess. After applying Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean to several intellectual virtues, the chapter closes by applying Aristotle’s metaphor of virtue as hitting a target. It suggests that our intellectual actions “hit the target” insofar as they involve our doing the right intellectual acts, at the right times, in the right ways, and for the right reasons.

ARCHITECTURAL TASTE AS AN ARCHITECTURAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON, ITS FACTORS AND ROLE IN THE ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICE

The article presents the results of a theoretical study of architectural taste as an architectural and psychological phenomenon, its factors and role in architectural education and practice. The peculiarity of architectural taste is facilitated by gustosology – complex science about aesthetic taste, its nature, peculiarities of formation and function in public life, role in the development of the general culture of personality and society generally. It is determined that architectural taste is an aesthetic pleasure derived from individual patterns of architecture preferences, which has an intellectual character, associated with the result of reasoning, sequence of evaluation and quick judgement, through which a non-trivial result is achieved by the proportionality of beauty. It was established that according to the theoretical research, the differences of architectural taste depend on factors: 1) professional and artistic (inherent to specialists – architects, designers and depends on the level of education and culture of a particular person); 2) sexual (for example, female tastes are more emotionally colored, more sensitive; they are mainly found in the design of the interiors of buildings); 3) national (hence – English, French taste); 4) ethnographic (for example, Hutsul style); 5) social (belonging to the noble family); 6) own and borrowed tastes (unification of tastes under the influence of fashion); 7) ecological (reflectses human’s attitude to the preservation and development of the eco-system); 8) educational (the study of tastes concerns the process of their formation in educational institutions); 9) physiological (perception of architecture); 10) psychological (temperament; psychological types of people by K. G. Jung according to the types of drawings of architectural objects (by Vinogradova E. I. and Barabanov A. A.). It is confirmed that architectural taste is formed throughout the life, and therefore may change. The results of the research are valuable for: theories of architecture; architectural education – for better understanding of students-architects by teachers of higher education institutions; for architectural practice in the field of urbanism and urban planning, as well as in work with customers; for the further experimental research, in particular, the identification of typology of architectural tastes of individuals and their psychological characteristics, which will be presented in the next publications of the author.

On the centenary of Zygmunt Janiszewski (1888-1920): ideals of mathematical practice and the constitution of continuum theory

This paper shows the importance of applying a certain approach to the history and philosophy of mathematical practice to the study of Zygmunt Janiszewski's contribution to the topological foundations of Continuum theory. In the first part, a biography of Janiszewski is presented. It emphasizes his role as one of the founders of the Polish School of Mathematics, and the social, political and military facets in which his intellectual character was revealed, as well as the values that guided his academic and scientific life. Kitcher's view of mathematical practice is then adopted to examine the philosophical conceptions and epistemological style of Janiszewski in relation to the construction of the formal axiomatic system of knowledge about the continua. Finally, it is shown the convenience of differentiating in Kitcher's approach, the methods, procedures, techniques and strategies of practice, and the aesthetic values of mathematics. Keywords: Zygmunt Janiszewski; Continuum theory; Philosophy of mathematical practice; Polish school of mathematics.

Argumentative Deliberation and the Development of Intellectual Humility and Autonomy in the Classroom

It is argued that argumentative deliberation, which involves the interpersonal exchange and evaluation of reasons and counter-reasons, is crucial for the generation of epistemic goods given that it helps us eradicate errors and neutralise biases. However, to reap argumentative deliberation’s epistemic benefits, the deliberators need to instantiate a certain intellectual character: in particular, they need to be intellectually humble and autonomous. Given that, it is argued that the educational system should foster the development of the intellectual virtues of humility and autonomy. Moreover, some pedagogical strategies and practices as to how this can be achieved in the classroom are offered.