Fallacies are common mistakes that people tend to make when arguing. Intellectual virtues are qualities of good reasoning that one can develop to help reduce the likelihood of committing a fallacy. In this module, we will discuss 9 pairs of intellectual virtues that someone can develop, as well as the various fallacies that failing to develop those virtues may tend to produce. These virtues are:
- Intellectual self-regard and intellectual humility,
- Respect and desire for the truth,
- Knowing what you know, and knowing what you don’t know,
- Self-awareness and objectivity,
- Reasonable emotions and intellectual temperance,
- Intellectual courage and intellectual caution,
- Realism and optimism about intellectual progress,
- Intellectual patience and intellectual persistence, and
- Simplicity and comprehensiveness.
- 2.1 Proper Regard
- 2.2 Managing Subjectivity
- 2.3 Realism