Virtuous Minds Summary

Improved Essays
Virtuous Minds by Philip E. Dow explains to us what it means to pursue truth and think virtuously. Dow goes through all the many intellectual virtues that we need as people. Virtues are important in our faith, because they help keep us on track. We need to strive after keeping intellectual virtues of courage, carefulness, tenacity, fair-mindedness, curiosity, honesty, and most importantly humility. He shows us the benefits of knowing more about more and of better thinking while showing us how to love God and love our neighbors. He also gives us steps to follow and suggestions for educators to help us.
Dow explains to us what intellectual courage is and why it is so important. We must strive to have intellectual actions, thinking before we
…show more content…
Being fair-minded is not the same as being completely open, because more often than not that is when you get hurt. When people go away from being fair-minded, they fall away from truth. But those who are fair-minded desperately want to know truth. When we stop believing in truth the virtue of fair-mindedness morphs into meaninglessness.” (Dow, 48) People need to be fair-minded, putting truth above their opinions and be in pursuit of learning.
Intellectual curiosity can change lives, especially when it is faith inspired. People who are intellectually curious, desire to know truth and ask questions, because they realize that without curiosity we will never grow in our understanding of anything. Intellectual curiosity is an easier virtue to develop, because our world is wired to be curious. But unbridled curiosity can do much harm, so we must be careful in where our curiosity leads us
…show more content…
By loving God, we will strive to obtain these virtues. We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, so everything we do and every way we use our intellectual gifts, so bring honor to God. When we turn our eyes from ourselves and to God, we start to grow intellectually. There is a link between worship and knowledge., worship is far more than knowledge of God, it is relational. As intellectually virtuous Christians, we will be easily threatened in our faith, but coming out of that and rising up, we will bring honor to God.
The second greatest commandment is the Bible is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By loving our neighbor, we will learn to love God more. Our intellectual character should help us to love others, and make wise decisions. If we pursue truth, we will have the ability to love others, and love them to the fullest. Pursuing truth and loving others, builds trust and can lead to great breakthroughs in life and in

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Vigils Moral Lesson

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Short Summary: In the beginning Archie and Obie are sitting watching football players and talking about assignments to give to kids. These assignments are for the Vigils who are a gang in the school. Archie, who is the official assigner of the Vigils, gives assignments to Jerry Renault, Roland Goubert, and a few other kids.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    So, in order to truly gain moral insights, we need to view someone else as equal to us to truly become knowledgeable and fully/ faithfully…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Strength, honor, soldier, Olympian, and Christian are words that describe Louie Zamperini. Laura Hillenbrand writes about the life of Louie and the traumatic events that he endured through World War II. In Laura Hillenbrand’s novel, “Unbroken- A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” readers will explore how Louie Zamperini’s character and inner strength helped him become an Olympic athlete, survive imprisonment as a Japanese Prisoner of War (POW) and turn his life around upon returning from war. The book begins with Louie as a young boy as a rebellious youth who liked to cause a lot of mischief around the neighborhood of Torrance, California.…

    • 2142 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Michael Robinson Professor Honisberg Ethics 6 December 2016 Jesus and Aristotle Historically there has always been a separation between philosophy and religion. While philosophy has mentioned religion multiple times there is no well-known link between the two. I grew up my entire life as a Baptist Christian but I never really had a great understanding of philosophy. The only names that I knew had anything to do with philosophy about were Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle.…

    • 2107 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the world, numerous people tend to misinterpret the true meaning of intellectualism. As perceived by many, an intellectual is a person who is involved in critical studies, thoughts, and proposes solutions to normal day-to-day situations. In contrast to such definition, two pieces of literature that have unique explanations are “Reading Rhetorically” by Rose and “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff. In their articles, both authors urge reconsideration of what is considered “intellectual or intelligent.”…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In a 1990 article published by the New York Times, “America Needs Its Nerds” by Leonid Fridman, Fridman argues that people that are intellectually curious are degraded and disrespected in America. If we do not begin to prioritize intellectualism, America as a country will not be able to keep up with the rest of the world. In the first section of the article, Fridman establishes that the terminology people in America use to refer to the intellectually curious is derogatory. Fridman references Webster’s New World Dictionary, providing a definition for the term “geek.”…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Virtue is… What is virtue? Few can answer this question and even fewer can truthfully say they are virtuous. Virtue is a concept that has been forgotten by society. Many believe that by avoiding evil and wrong they are being virtuous, but this is not all you need to do to be virtuous. You must practice and uphold moral and ethical principles; you must actively choose virtue.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Courage: 1. the ability to do something that frightens one. 2.strength in the face of pain or grief. The essence of courage is not the feeling of being certainly capable of overcoming what’s one is faced with, but rather is the willful choice to fight regardless of the consequences. Odette Samson was a British spy working in occupied France during the second world war.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Plato's Apology Argument

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Every human being has the ability to decide what they believe and what they do not. At a very early age, we develop judgement that allows us to choose whether or not to accept certain claims. These assertions may be tempting, but our reasoning allows us to critically analyze the information with respect to all of our previous knowledge. These claims may be faith based, fact-based, or opinion. Without recognizing it, we take every bit of information we gather, analyze it, and decide whether we accept its validity.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Diotima Speech Analysis

    • 1042 Words
    • 4 Pages

    WHAT IS THE OBJECT AND PURPOSE OF LOVE ACCORDING TO DIOTIMA? Whereas many of the interlocutors present in the symposium are unclear / ambiguous in their presentation / definition of the dichotomy present between love and desire, Socrates recounts that Diotima proposes that “love” can be classified as the “desire” which is shared between two (people); (ideally) coming to forge a potent and powerful bond between them. WHAT DOES DIOTIMA CLAIM LIES MIDWAY BETWEEN WISDOM OR KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE?…

    • 1042 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mindset In TED Talk

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages

    We should accept the fact if we decide to listen to other’s opinions, we may be proven wrong of our own beliefs. If we are proven wrong of our own beliefs, we should not be ashamed of it. People should feel proud to be more educated about other…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Philosophy 2306 Final Paper In The Elements of Moral Philosophy, James and Stuart Rachels discuss the ideas of ethics that a novice should challenge. This book consists of thirteen chapters. First, the author begins with the minimum conception of morality; the following three chapters cover cultural relativism and the connection between morality and religion; the middle chapters, five to twelve, focus on essential ethical theories; and the last chapter describes the author’s perspective of what a satisfactory moral theory should be like.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    If we accept that most intellectual virtues have truth as their ultimate end; then it follows that our disposition in arriving at true knowledge is truth-driven. Zagzebski defines knowledge as, “cognitive contact with reality arising out of acts of intellectual virtue.” Arriving to moral and intellectual virtues is based on circumstance and motivation. Virtues are properties that add to the characteristics of a person. Virtuous motivation that results with an act can result from epistemic motives.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the Greek and Trojan War depicted in the Iliad the reader leans of the qualities of the many leaders. The Greeks lead by Agamemnon and the Trojans lead by Hector have been at war for nine years previous to the Iliad. There are many leaders in the Iliad that are great and there are some that are terrible. Great leaders are ones that have courage, the respect of their men and enemies, and are inspirational. Terrible leaders are cowardly and selfish when faced with great challenges.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cardinal Virtue Analysis

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In Section 5, “Making Moral Decisions,” the topics of gifts, guides, and forgiveness and reconciliation are discussed. We learn what it means to live as a moral person and what gifts God gives us to live a moral life. We also learn about what guides us in making moral decisions and what happens when we miss the mark. Most importantly, we learn that God gives us everything we truly “need to live a holy, happy, and healthy life”(228).…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays