Philosophy Toolkit

Intellectual Virtues: Seven habits of highly reasonable people

6. Intellectual Courage – A willingness to consider with an open mind ideas or lines of reasoning that are unpopular or potentially dangerous, to follow reasoning and evidence where they lead undeterred by any potential risk their conclusions may pose.

7. Interpretive Charity – A preparedness to give others the benefit of the doubt, interpreting their statements in the best possible light and on the working assumption that their thoughts are valuable. To interpret charitably is not to read or listen uncritically, but to be disinclined to condemn others’ views except as a last resort. It is the practical basis for civility in discourse, as well as prerequisite for grasping unfamiliar texts and approaches.

So after reading over these two virtues I disagreed that it was a natural reaction for people. I then went back and realized that the virtues were of "highly reasonable people". So that got me thinking, what determines a highly reasonable person? Do you acquire these attributes in order to become highly reasonable? Or do you get these attributes once you become highly reasonable?

I do not think that most people have intellectual courage. In our brief first discussion in my Media, Self Identity, and Society class, we talked about how the media influences our ideas of who we want to be. This media has a large impact on trends, which often discourage unique fashions or ideas. What I'm getting at is that I think someone can be highly reasonable but at the same time be afraid of the norms that society has created, discouraging them from advertising their different ideas.

Interpretive charity is noticeably absent from many conversations these days. Therefore, I do think that this is an attribute that is key to becoming a highly reasonable person. So often these days, people will hear one thing they don't like in a statement and focus solely on that one point so they can respond to and attack it. As professor noted yesterday in class, this mindset shuts out anything else the speaker could mention after the point. This behavior promotes ignorance as this wall that is put up is a result of one disagreement. Even if the speaker has several other points that you agree with, if you focus only on the negatives you will not even pay notice to their valid points.

So I conclude that these attributes must be attained in order to become a highly reasonable person.