Carefulness

Whereas curiosity is the central intellectual virtue that motivates us to seek truth, knowledge, and understanding, carefulness is the central virtue that repels us from falsehood and irrational belief. This chapter explores the nature of carefulness. It begins with a series of problems designed to test the reader’s statistical reasoning skills, as a way to underscore the importance of carefulness. It then gives an account of the virtue itself. The virtue of intellectual carefulness lies between extremes of carelessness (a deficient attention to evidence) and scrupulousness (an excess). The chapter argues for the importance of carefulness across a wide range of applications, while resisting the idea that skepticism itself is a virtue. It closes with a suggested routine—the CSQ or Claim, Support, Question routine—designed to foster intellectual carefulness.

Honesty

This chapter explores the nature of intellectual honesty. Honesty is the first virtue in the book that does not clearly fit into the vice-virtue-vice schema discussed in earlier chapters. This chapter attempts to home in on honesty by exploring its opposites: cheating (plagiarism), lying, bluffing, bullshit, and self-deception. The common feature of these instances of dishonesty is that they all involve an effort to distort the truth. Thus, it is argued, honesty is a virtue centrally involving a disposition not to distort the truth, but rather to represent it accurately (as one sees it). This notion of honesty (and the corresponding notion of dishonesty) suggests that truth itself depends on the way things are, rather than on some sort of “social construction.”

Fair-Mindedness and Charity

This chapter explores the virtues of fair-mindedness and intellectual charity, with a view toward diagnosing and curing problems with public discourse—especially online trolling, bullying, and incendiary speech. The chapter examines and applies intellectual parallels to the well-known Silver and Golden Rules of morality. By working through several realistic cases of discourse gone bad, it suggests a range of guidelines for fostering fair habits of mind. These guidelines describe the intellectual behavior of the fair-minded thinker. The chapter then moves to examine intellectual charity, a virtue that lies beyond fair-mindedness. It closes by arguing that the line between intellectual virtue and vice does not divide people along ideological lines.

Humility and Self-Confidence

This chapter explores the complementary virtues of intellectual humility and intellectual self-confidence. The former pertains to owning our intellectual weaknesses; the latter to owning our strengths. Both virtues require an appropriate degree of attention to our intellectual abilities, along with an accurate or reasonable assessment of these and a willingness to own them. Both humility and self-confidence rule out vices of arrogance and self-deprecation, along with pride and vanity. The chapter locates the virtues of humility and self-confidence in relation to their vice counterparts. It then relates intellectual humility to the much-discussed notion of a growth mindset, and suggests that developing such a mindset may foster humility.

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.

Why Good Thinking Matters

This chapter explores the importance of good thinking in everyday life, and explains the role of intellectual virtue in good thinking. It begins by establishing the importance of character in the life well lived—something that becomes clear in light of the prospect of one’s own demise. The chapter goes on to emphasize intellectual character in particular. It then makes the case that intellectual virtues (e.g., carefulness, humility, and perseverance) foster such goods as general success in life, flourishing relationships, quality education, and the achievement of knowledge. It closes by establishing that intellectual virtues are not just for academics. Rather, they are for everyone.

Autonomy

Drawing from examples ranging from the suffrage movement to the Scientific Revolution, this chapter explores the nature of intellectual autonomy, the virtue we need in order to think for ourselves. The chapter identifies autonomy as a virtue that stands between the vices of servility (a deficiency of independence) and isolation (an excess). It argues that, surprisingly, virtuous autonomy requires us to rely on others—a fact illustrated by both the suffragists and the scientific revolutionaries. Autonomy is a matter of thinking for ourselves, but not a matter of thinking by ourselves. The chapter includes a discussion of the relationship between autonomy and deference to experts. It closes with exercises designed to prompt the reader toward virtuous, autonomous thinking.

Perseverance

This chapter explores intellectual perseverance, the virtue needed to overcome obstacles to our getting, keeping, and sharing knowledge. After locating perseverance as a virtue between the deficiency of irresolution and the vice of intransigence, the chapter considers the structure of the virtue in greater detail. It argues that perseverance involves a disposition to expend serious effort in order to overcome obstacles to the completion of our intellectual projects—particularly obstacles that make it difficult for us to achieve our intellectual ends. The chapter concludes by relating the notion of intellectual perseverance to recent work on grit, and to the concept of a growth mindset.

Courage

This chapter examines intellectual courage, the virtue needed to persist in pursuit of our intellectual aims despite threats. It notes that courage is commonly exercised not just in our efforts to gain knowledge, but also in our efforts to keep and share it. It locates intellectual courage in relation to the vices of intellectual cowardice (a deficiency) and rashness (an excess). The chapter then argues that courage centrally concerns our persistence in the face of threats rather than fears, as is commonly thought. The chapter closes by examining courage in the context of psychological experiments on conformity, and by encouraging the reader to find opportunities to act courageously in the midst of intellectual activities.