Center for Teaching Excellence
Loyola Marymount University
November 15, 2012
Teaching for Intellectual Virtues
Jason Baehr, Ph.D.
LMU Philosophy Department
intellectualvirtues.org
www.ivalongbeach.org
Preliminary Questions:
1. What counts as academic success?
2. What capacities or qualities are
required for such success?
3. What “picture” of students does
this leave us with?
My plan:
I.
What are intellectual virtues?
II. Why are they important?
III. Objections/replies
I. What are intellectual virtues? And
how do they differ from related
cognitive strengths?
Nature and structure of
intellectual virtues
Intellectual virtues = the personal
qualities of a good thinker or learner.
Two-part structure: (1) intellectual
virtues are rooted in a “love” of
knowledge/learning; (2) each
individual virtue involves a unique
mindset or activity that distinguishes it
from other virtues.
Intellectual virtues vs. “raw”
cognitive abilities
Cognitive abilities: vision, memory,
introspection, and “reason” (raw
intelligence) – a person’s cognitive
“hardware”
The difference: strength in cognitive
abilities is neither necessary nor
sufficient for strength in intellectual
virtues.
Intellectual virtues vs.
intellectual skills
Intellectual skills: abilities to
perform specific intellectual tasks
The difference: skills are
compatible with “usage failures,”
while virtues are not.
Intellectual character vs.
performance character
Performance character: traits
required for “finishing strong,” e.g.,
perseverance, grit, and selfdiscipline.
Intellectual character: traits
required for deep explanatory
understanding of “significant”
subject matters.
Intellectual character is both
narrower and broader than
performance character.
Selections from C.P.
Snow, The Search
II. Why are intellectual virtues
important to education?
1. “Thickening” familiar but
nebulous educational goals
 Example: “lifelong learning”
 Intellectual virtue concepts are
“thick”; as such, they provide a
more concrete and strategic
way of teaching for “lifelong
learning”.
 A similar point applies to goals
like “critical thinking” and the
“education of the whole
person”.
2. Making education rigorous and
personal
 “Dewey’s Dilemma”
 Educating for intellectual
virtues is necessarily rigorous.
 Educating for intellectual
virtues is necessarily personal.
3. Introducing meaning and purpose
to teaching and learning
 Principle: pursuit of a worthy
educational goal will make the
value of education evident to
teachers and students.
 A test case: good grades or good
test scores as a (de facto)
educational goal
 Intellectual virtues and the value
of teaching and learning
III. Objections and Replies
Mustn’t we choose between teaching for intellectual
virtues and teaching for academic content?
Reply:
- Intellectual character education vs. traditional
character education
- Intellectual virtues express themselves in
intellectual actions. They are fostered (in part)
through the practice of these actions. Practicing
these actions involves an active and reflective
engagement with academic content.
- Teaching for intellectual virtues: how vs. what
Should intellectual character growth
really be an explicit educational goal?
Reply:
- The real threats of trivialization and
oversaturation
- A middle ground: the “enculturation model”
of how intellectual virtues are fostered
Wrapping up:
1. Intellectual virtues are related to but
distinct from raw cognitive abilities,
intellectual skills, and “performance
virtues”.
Wrapping up:
2. Treating intellectual character growth as
an important educational goal: (a) provides
a more concrete way of pursuing several
familiar but nebulous educational goals; (b)
leads to an education that is at once
rigorous and personal; and (c) introduces
meaning and purpose to teaching and
learning.
Wrapping up:
3. Educating for intellectual virtues is best
pursued through a process of enculturation,
which is consistent with a strong academic
focus.
“It is not the brains that matter most, but
that which guides them—the character,
the heart, generous qualities, progressive
ideas.” —Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Further reading:
1. Bob Roberts and Jay Wood, Intellectual Virtues: An
Essay in Regulative Epistemology (Oxford, 2007).
2. Ron Ritchhart, Intellectual Character: What It Is, Why
It Matters, and How to Get It (Jossey-Bass, 2002).
3. Paul Tough, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity,
and the Hidden Power of Character (Houghton, Mifflin,
Harcourt, 2012).
4. Scott Seider, Character Compass: How Powerful
Student Culture Can Point Kids Toward Success
(Harvard Education, 2012).