{"id":14931,"date":"2017-11-02T12:53:21","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T19:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14931"},"modified":"2017-11-02T13:02:21","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T20:02:21","slug":"we-have-lost-the-cultivation-of-virtue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/we-have-lost-the-cultivation-of-virtue\/","title":{"rendered":"We have lost the cultivation of virtue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Much like our own research journey, it is always helpful when the author is clear about the problem she is seeking to address. Elder described the problem she was seeking to address as a problem of formation and awareness. The author writes: \u201cBut much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The book serves as a short guide to supplement textbook reading that requires critical thinking. According to the author, critical thinking is a skill that can be cultivated. The author claims that a well trained critical thinker:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;<\/li>\n<li>gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively;<\/li>\n<li>comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;<\/li>\n<li>thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and<\/li>\n<li>communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The author also included a variety of visual models to the help the critical thinker organize and gain perspective of the different elements of thought and how they relate to one another.<\/p>\n<p>Of particular interest to me was the section on Intellectual Traits and Virtues, along with the Problem of Egocentric Thinking. These particular commentaries bring to light various influences on the way humans think about ideas and concepts, and the need to understand these influences and develop intellectual virtues that contribute to more useful thinking patterns. Among the virtues the author considers: Intellectual Empathy, Intellectual Autonomy, Intellectual Integrity, Intellectual Humility, Confidence in Reason, Intellectual Perseverance, Fairmindedness, and Intellectual Courage.<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> Each of these virtues were interesting to me, especially since our congregation has been enduring many hard conversations around systemic racism, LGBTQ issues, and other issues at the intersection of the church\u2019s public witness. I notice that almost every time the conversation hits a dead end, or goes awry, it\u2019s due to what I have perceived as a lack of intellectual virtue.<\/p>\n<p>Intellectual humility requires one to be self-aware regarding the vast array of influences to one\u2019s thinking. It requires one to respect the views of the other by acknowledging that no one person can see all of life clearly. Intellectual humility acknowledges that no one is omnipotent.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Knight_academy_lecture_Rosenborg_Palace.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-14932\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Knight_academy_lecture_Rosenborg_Palace-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Knight_academy_lecture_Rosenborg_Palace-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Knight_academy_lecture_Rosenborg_Palace-150x118.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Knight_academy_lecture_Rosenborg_Palace.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>My undergraduate education at Westmont was focused on theories and practices of classical rhetoric. When one studies the intellectual works of the Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian and the like, it\u2019s difficult not to see how current intellectual education has left virtue as an unnecessary option. These intellectual giants from the classical world emphasize intellectual virtue as integral to the cultivation of intellectual capacity. The believed that intellectual engagement involved not just the mind, but the whole person, and serious intellectual engagement also requires love. In fact, \u201crhetoric\u201d was defined for me as \u201cloving appropriately through speech.\u201d Isn\u2019t that fantastic?<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the problem of egocentric thinking has dominated the political discourse in the United States for at least a decade. The author writes: \u201cEgocentric thinking results from the unfortunate fact that humans do not naturally consider the rights and needs of others. We do not naturally appreciate the point of view of others nor the limitations in our own point of view\u2026As humans we live with the unrealistic but confident sense that we have fundamentally figured out the way things actually are, and that we have done this objectively.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>How foolish we are. What has happened to the cultivation of intellectual virtue in the American education system? It\u2019s critical that especially as Christians, if we are going to be serious research students, we must work intentionally and rigorously to cultivate these virtues along with the other attributes of critical thinking the author describes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Richard Paul and Linda Elder,\u00a0<em>The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools<\/em>\u00a0(Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2006), 1-21, accessed October 30, 2017,\u00a0https:\/\/www.criticalthinking.org\/files\/Concepts_Tools.pdf.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Ibid, 4.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Ibid, 15.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Linda Elder,\u00a0<em>Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools<\/em>, 7th ed. (New York: Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2009), Kindle edition, loc: 247.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much like our own research journey, it is always helpful when the author is clear about the problem she is seeking to address. Elder described the problem she was seeking to address as a problem of formation and awareness. The author writes: \u201cBut much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[290],"class_list":["post-14931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-elder","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14933,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions\/14933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}