Educating for Good Character: from Critical Thinking to Intellectual Character Virtues
Educating for Good Character: from Critical Thinking to Intellectual Character Virtues

Summary/Abstract: Life in the 21st century has presented people with unprecedented appeals and ethical challenges which are nowhere more evident than in educational institutions as well as in the online space.A renewed interest in the character as one of the crucial ethical developments is gaining momentum today. Good character is based on the virtues one possesses. We argue that education focused on the cultivation of intellectual virtues such as curiosity, intellectual humility, intellectual autonomy, attentiveness, intellectual carefulness, intellectual thoroughness, open mindedness, intellectual courage and intellectual tenacity are needed for individuals to lead fulfilling lives. At least, growing in intellectual virtues seems to be a valuable and desirable educational aim. This theoretical study strives to make a twofold contribution to the area of knowledge: firstly, it aims to contribute to the area of character and moral education through describing its forms and features; and secondly, it aims to contribute to virtue epistemology by identifying its nature and focus and outlining nine intellectual or epistemic virtues. Further to the second contribution, the study ends by arguing that the intellectual virtue approach and the critical thinking approach both help to cultivate intellectually virtuous critical thinkers.

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