Virtue and Vices

¶ … virtue is a habit or a human quality that is acquired that enables an individual to ascend to their personal happiness. It is a good act or an excellence in the human character. There can never be a bad virtue and hence a vice is the opposite of a virtue. It is a habit that spoils the chance of one achieving happiness, a vice is something bad and hence there can never be a good vice (Boyd & Timpe, 2014).

This paper will look at three examples of intellectual virtues and their corresponding vices. One of the intellectual virtues is intellectual honesty. Intellectual honesty refers to the acquisition, analysis and transmission of ideas. Aperson is termed as being intellectually honest if they know the truth and state it as is. It is an applied method of solving problems which is normally characterized by honest and unbiased attitude that can be demonstrated through various different ways. These include one's individual's beliefs not impacting the pursuit for truth.

It alsoincludes having relevant facts and information not omitted purposely even if they contradict a hypothesis.it also involves facts being presented in an unbiased manner and they are not twisted such that they give impressions that are misleading so as to support a view over another. The corresponding vice to this virtue is intellectual dishonesty. Intellectual dishonesty involves avoiding an honest, deliberate and comprehensive approach in a matter because it can lead to an adverse effect on view that is held on a personal and professional level.

This is the failure to apply standards of rational evaluation which one is well aware of normally in a self-serving fashion. If one judges others critically compared to how they judge themselves then they are intellectually dishonest. Basically intellectual dishonesty involves deliberately ignoring arguments and facts which would undermine one position.

Common forms of intellectual dishonesty include applying double standards, plagiarism, use of false analogies, and exaggeration (Boyd & Timpe, 2014) Another intellectual virtue is intellectual empathy which involves having consciousness of need to imaginatively place oneself in others place so as to be able to genuinely understand hem. This requires the consciousness of ones egocentric tendency in order to identify the immediate perceptions of ones longstanding thoughts or beliefs.

It correlates with the ability of reconstructing accuratelyothers viewpoints and their reasoning and hence conforms to their ideas and assumptions as opposed to our own. The corresponding vice intellectual empathy is intellectual apathy. This is thinking that is centered on one self. When one thinks from a self-centered perspective then they will not be able to understand how others think or feel. Another example of intellectual virtue is intellectual courage.

This involves having consciousness of the need to face and address ideas fairly, beliefs or viewpoints towards which one can have strong negative emotions and to which normally one is not given a serious hearing. The courage is connected to recognizing that ideas termed as dangerous or even absurd are at times justified in a rational manner. And the conclusions and beliefs are inculcated are at times misleading or false.

So as to determine for one, which one is which then we are required to not passively and uncritically accept everything that we have learned. Intellectual courage is used here since inevitably come.