WORKSHOP: The Why, What if-, and How of Intellectual Virtue

WORKSHOP
From a philosophical perspective, being good means establishing truth, knowledge, and understanding. Good thinking is critical for long-term success, or fulfilling one’s potential, whatever the profession, discipline, or activity, including graduate study. To be good requires many distinct intellectual virtues or character traits that are interconnected and mutually supportive. Examples of such character traits include curiosity, being able to ask deep and meaningful questions; tenacity, the willingness to embrace intellectual challenges and not give up on long-term objectives, and humility, or being able to admit one’s limitations and mistakes despite one’s intellectual status. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher most associated with intellectual virtue, considered virtue to be the golden mean of the vices of excess or deficiency. For example, with intellectual humility, arrogance is the vice of excess, the belief there are no limits on one’s knowledge and understanding, while self-abasement is the vice of deficiency t, the belief that one has no knowledge or understanding. More recently, the psychological study of character has shown these traits are important in learning and training as well as professional development and action. For example, to be an effective researcher, one needs to identify appropriate questions (curiosity), pursue those questions despite setbacks and challenges (tenacity), and embrace the answers however they might contradict or support one’s original assertions (humility). In this workshop, we will explore intellectual virtues through guided discussion and reflection. Topics addressed will include the why, or context; the what-if, or implications, and finally the how, or the approaches for building intellectual character in the context of graduate education and training.

Facilitated by
Dr. Dominic Chaloner
Professor of the Practice, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame

Participation restricted to Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars
Registration Required