Project: Intellectual virtue

"Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?" -Aristotle

(Nicomachean Ethics, 1094a, I.2, trans. W. D. Ross)

The truthseeker is a person who holds within their heart the following thought: I want to believe what's true. We start with a desire, the desire for truth, and the desire to be rid of false beliefs.

Should we have that desire? That's a separate question.

Do we have this desire because we are rational creatures, suggesting that anyone without this desire is irrational? That's a separate question. 

What does it even mean for something to be true, or for something to be a desire? Again, separate questions. 

Is truth intrinsically good? Should we seek truth without discretion, or should we only care about certain kinds of truth? Still, separate questions.

To keep things focused, let us focus on the desire itself. If someone wants to increase the likelihood that their beliefs are true, how do they do this? If someone wants to avoid being stuck in false beliefs, how do they do this? This is the question I'm interested in.

By aiming for truth, we increase the likelihood that we find it. Here is then the core question: What does it look like to aim for truth? When a person aims for truth, what will this person sound like when they speak? What will their mindset be? What will they spend their time doing? What practices and habits will they form? What does aiming for truth entail for one's own psychology, personality, and behavior?

Philosophy, as a discipline for seeking the most fundamental truths, begins with psychology: the psychology of the kind of person who cares, and could care, about truth.

Questions:

• What is virtue?
• What is intellectual virtue?
• What are the intellectual virtues?
• How do we know when something is virtuous or vicious?
  
• Does intellectual virtue provide a foundation for seeking truth? Or is it part of the foundations of truthseeking? Does all rational inquiry begin with virtue?
• Does intellectual virtue provide examples of true 'should' statements? Ex. You should be passionate about truth, you should be intellectually brave, you should not be intellectually lazy, you should be able to disagree well, etc.
• What does virtue have to do with epistemology? What is virtue epistemology?
• How does virtue relate to epistemic hypocrisy?
• How does virtue relate to the problem of being epistemically stuck?
• How does virtue relate to how we can tell whether someone is a genuine truthseeker?
• If someone appears to not exhibit intellectual virtue, then how should we react to their truth claims?
• How does intellectual virtue relate to intelligence?
• How does intellectual virtue relate to rationality? 
• How does intellectual virtue relate to reason, reasons, and a priori knowledge?

Bibliography:

• Linda Zagzebski: Virtues of the Mind (book)
• T. Ryan Byerly: Introducing Logic and Critical Thinking (book)
• Michael Huemer: Knowledge, Reality, and Value (book)
• Joe Schmid: The Majesty of Reason (book)
• Josh Rasmussen: How Reason Can Lead to God (book)
• Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (W. D. Ross translation)
• Philip Dow: Virtuous Minds (book)
• Richard Swinburne (quote)