#intellectual virtues

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Truth Seeking

The philosophy of truth seeking involves the rigorous and systematic pursuit of truth and understanding across various domains of knowledge. It encompasses the methodologies, ethical considerations, and intellectual virtues necessary for discerning what is true from what is false. This philosophy is fundamental to disciplines such as epistemology, science, and ethics, and it plays a crucial role in how individuals and societies form beliefs, make decisions, and establish values.

At its core, truth seeking is driven by the belief that truth is valuable and worth pursuing for its own sake, as well as for its practical benefits. Philosophers have long debated the nature of truth, the methods by which it can be discovered, and the criteria for determining its validity. Some key aspects of the philosophy of truth seeking include:

Epistemology: The study of knowledge and justified belief. It explores the nature, scope, and limits of human knowledge, as well as the methods for acquiring and validating it.

Scientific Method: A systematic approach to inquiry that relies on observation, experimentation, and empirical evidence to develop and test hypotheses about the natural world.

Intellectual Virtues: Traits such as open-mindedness, intellectual humility, critical thinking, and perseverance that are essential for effective truth seeking.

Ethical Considerations: The moral responsibilities associated with seeking and disseminating truth, including honesty, integrity, and respect for evidence.

Truth seeking is not just an individual endeavor but also a collective one. It involves the collaborative efforts of communities of scholars, scientists, and thinkers who build upon each other's work, challenge each other's assumptions, and refine their methods over time. In this way, the philosophy of truth seeking underpins the progress of human knowledge and the advancement of society.

[geopolicraticus]

Wisdom Traditions and Intellectual Virtues

Human, All-Too-Human Knowledge.—The value of scientific knowledge could be defended on the purely Platonic grounds that knowledge is the good. From this is follows that the pursuit of scientific knowledge is good, or (at very least) a means to the good, and the intellectual virtues that facilitate the growth of scientific knowledge are a necessary condition of realizing the good of scientific knowledge. The fly in the ointment of this ethical argument for science is that contemporary empirical science does not count as knowledge in the Platonic sense. This is an opportunity, however, to demonstrate the empirical ellipses in wisdom traditions derived from (or adjacent to) Platonism—not only Plotinian mysticism, but also Stoicism. Arguably, the same intellectual virtues prized by these wisdom traditions are at work in the growth of scientific knowledge, and this is, in itself, another argument for the ethical value of science, which embodies both the good at which we aim and the intellectual virtues by which we reach that end. In this way, the good of scientific knowledge, through the lens of Plato, transcends the dichotomy of teleology and deontology.

[calialcaro-erutano]

Canticles. Just Canticles. How is it different from fertility cults that were around at the same time? It borrows imagery from poetry in the surrounding region. It may include references to a harem of the king. How is it canon when it is never referend in the New Testament? How is it different from say, the pop singer who is an anagram for “Presbyterian”? How is it different from modern songs which are fairly clearly violations of the seventh commandment? Or were the Puritans wrong in their analysis of the moral law? Work Cited Roberts, Robert Campbell, and W. Jay Wood. Intellectual Virtues: an Essay in Regulative Epistemology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2012.1

[alissawilkinson]

Watching Well: Developing the Virtue of Curiosity

As chief film critic for Christianity Today, I get asked a lot of movie questions: what should I watch at the theater this weekend? Who will win an Oscar? Is Tom Cruise a good actor or is it just his glowing teeth?

But the question that I get asked the most—sometimes in a snarky way, but sometimes sincerely—is this: why is Christianity Today covering movies at all?

Maybe it would make sense to my inquisitors if we mostly covered “Christian” movies, or movies on Christian themes. But why would a Christian magazine also review everything from Guardians of the Galaxy to Two Days, One Night? Why send critics to the Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, and New York Film Festival? Why bother thinking aboutthe politics of prime-time TV dramas or revisiting old movies for a second look?

Many of the answers to this question I've heard from Christians (and given myself) are about being “engaged with culture” or developing critical capacity or being able to relate to your neighbors, all of which is really important, of course. Lately, though, I've been thinking about how the very act of watching movies and TV shows develops in the viewers particular intellectual virtues.

That is, I believe that being good watchers— that developing good habits in watching movies and TV shows—can form us into more virtuous people in general. In particular, I'm starting to understand how we can develop some of the character strengths that philosophers and theologians have thought of for millennia as “intellectual”: habits of the mind that make us better thinkers and learners, both during our engagement with the screen and after we turn it off.

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