Intellectual virtues are character traits necessary for right action and correct thinking. They include: a sense of justice, perseverance

Perseverance

Perseverance may refer to:* Perseverance , a card game* Perseverance , American fighter Brock Lesnar* Perseverance...

, empathy

Empathy

Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...

, integrity

Integrity

Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions...

, intellectual courage, confidence in reason, and autonomy

Autonomy

Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...

.

Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

 analyzed virtue

Virtue

Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....

s into moral and intellectual virtues (or dianoetic virtues, from the Greek aretai dianoetikai). In the Posterior Analytics

Posterior Analytics

The Posterior Analytics is a text from Aristotle's Organon that deals with demonstration, definition, and scientific knowledge. The demonstration is distinguished as a syllogism productive of scientific knowledge, while the definition marked as the statement of a thing's nature, .....

and Nicomachean Ethics

Nicomachean Ethics

The Nicomachean Ethics is the name normally given to Aristotle's best known work on ethics. The English version of the title derives from Greek Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια, transliterated Ethika Nikomacheia, which is sometimes also given in the genitive form as Ἠθικῶν Νικομαχείων, Ethikōn Nikomacheiōn...

he identified five intellectual virtues as the five ways the soul arrives at truth by affirmation or denial. He grouped them into three classes:

• Theoretical
  • Sophia - wisdom.
  • Episteme
    Episteme
    Episteme, as distinguished from techne, is etymologically derived from the Greek word ἐπιστήμη for knowledge or science, which comes from the verb ἐπίσταμαι, "to know".- The Concept of an "Episteme" in Michel Foucault :...
    
    - scientific knowledge, empirical knowledge.
  • Nous
    Nous
    Nous , also called intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, very close in meaning to intuition...
    
    - mind.
• Practical
  • Phronesis
    Phronesis
    Phronēsis is an Ancient Greek word for wisdom or intelligence which is a common topic of discussion in philosophy. In Aristotelian Ethics, for example in the Nicomachean Ethics it is distinguished from other words for wisdom as the virtue of practical thought, and is usually translated "practical...
    
    - practical wisdom/prudence.
• Productive
  • Techne
    Techne
    Techne, or techné, as distinguished from episteme, is etymologically derived from the Greek word τέχνη which is often translated as craftsmanship, craft, or art. It is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective...
    
    - craft knowledge, art, skill.

Subjacent intellectual virtues in Aristotle:

• Euboulia - deliberating well, deliberative excellence; thinking properly about the right end.
• Sunesis - understanding, sagacity, astuteness, consciousness of why something is as it is. For example, the understanding you have of why a situation is as it is, prior to having phronesis.
• Gnomê
  Gnome
  A gnome is a diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature...
  
  - judgement and consideration; allowing us to make equitable or fair decisions.
• Deinotes - cleverness; the ability to carry out actions so as to achieve a goal.

See also

• Critical thinking
  Critical thinking
  Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
  
  
• Epistemic virtue
  Epistemic virtue
  The epistemic virtues, as identified by virtue epistemologists, reflect their contention that belief is an ethical process, and thus susceptible to the intellectual virtue or vice of one's own life and personal experiences. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the question "How...
  
  
• Intellectual dishonesty
  Intellectual dishonesty
  Intellectual dishonesty is dishonesty in performing intellectual activities like thought or communication. Examples are:* the advocacy of a position which the advocate knows or believes to be false or misleading...
  
  
• Paideia
  Paideia
  In ancient Greek, the word n. paedeia or paideia [ to educate + - -IA suffix1] means child-rearing, education. It was a system of instruction in Classical Athens in which students were given a well-rounded cultural education. Subjects included rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, music, philosophy,...
  
  
• Virtue ethics
  Virtue ethics
  Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behavior, rather than rules , consequentialism , or social context .The difference between these four approaches to morality tends to lie more in the way moral dilemmas are...
  
  

External links

• Virtue Epistemology, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Glossary of Critical Thinking Terms: An Educator's Guide to Critical Thinking Terms and Concept