Keynote: Jason Baehr

Many would agree that education should help students become better people and better citizens. Yet, the immediate focus of most teachers is academic: they are tasked with imparting knowledge and skills to their students. How, if at all, can academic teaching and learning promote the ethical and civic aims of education? I offer a response to this question that focuses on “intellectual virtues,” which are the character attributes of good thinkers and learners, such as curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, and intellectual courage. I explain what intellectual virtues are, how they are related to certain ethical and civic values, and why educating for intellectual virtues provides a way of promoting these values that can be deeply and naturally integrated across the academic curriculum. Dr. Baehr is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His work focuses on intellectual virtues and their relevance to educational theory and practice. From 2012-2015, he was director of the Intellectual Virtues and Education Project at LMU, which was funded by a grant of over $1 million from the John Templeton Foundation and included the founding of the Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach, a charter middle school in Southern California. His books include Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues (Harvard Education Press, 2021), Intellectual Virtue and Education: Essays in Applied Virtue Epistemology (Routledge, 2016), and The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology (Oxford, 2012). Baehr has done extensive work with educators at all levels centered around the theory and practice of educating for virtues like curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, and intellectual courage. He lives with his family in Long Beach, CA. This lecture has been generously sponsored by: University of Mississippi School of Education University of Mississippi College of Liberal Arts University Lecture Series The Center for Practical Ethics, University of Mississipp