In this journal entry, I
will define intellectual perseverance including elements. I will reflect upon
how intellectual perseverance will be important as I progress in my studies. I
will include how intellectual perseverance relates to my concept of a good
leader including professional and personal life. I will use the SEE-I process
as a guide to organize my thoughts.
According to Toastmasters
International, intellectual perseverance is defined as "the disposition to
work one's way through intellectual complexities despite the frustration
inherent in the task. Some intellectual problems are complex and cannot be
easily solved. One has intellectual perseverance when one does not give up in
the face of intellectual complexity or frustration. The intellectually
perseverant person displays firm adherence to rational principles despite the
irrational opposition of others, and has a realistic sense of the need to
struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended time to
achieve understanding or insight". The opposite of intellectual
perseverance is intellectual laziness which is defined as "the tendency to
give up quickly when faced with an intellectually challenging task".
Physical perseverance (the human body) is different from intellectual
perseverance (the mind thinking process). For example, sports emphasize
"no pain, no gain" when using physical perseverance. (Intellectual
Perseverance: Working Through Complexity and Frustration).
Intellectual Humility
Intellectual humility is
awareness of the limits of my knowledge including egocentrism which is likely
to function self-deceptively. This includes awareness of biases, prejudices,
limitations of viewpoint, and ignorance. This does not imply weakness or
submissiveness. Not having an awareness of this is intellectual arrogance and
people who are often fall victim to their own bias and prejudice and claim to
know more than they actually know. Intellectual humility will help be a
fair-minded thinker along with knowledge of my ignorance can improve my
thinking in several ways by recognizing prejudices, false beliefs and habits of
mind that lead to flawed learning.
Intellectual Courage
Intellectual courage is
having an awareness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs and
viewpoints which I have strong negative emotions and to which I have not given
a fair hearing. For example, consider the following ideas: being conservative,
believing in God, believing in capitalism, disbelieving in abortion, believing
in capital punishment, I am a Christian, etc. No matter what side I am on, I
often say, I am a "insert belief." I define who I am in relation to
an emotional commitment to a belief and will likely experience inner fear when
that idea or belief is questioned. I need intellectual courage to overcome
self-created inner fear (linking my identity to a specific set of beliefs and
overcome the fear of rejection by others because they hold certain beliefs and
are likely to reject me if I challenge those beliefs.
Intellectual Empathy
Intellectual empathy is
awareness of the need to put yourself in
the place of others including their ideas, viewpoints and reasoning in order to
understand them and reason from ideas
other than my own. How can I be fair to the thinking of others if I have not
learned to put myself in their intellectual position? Different contexts and
situations are needed to learn and understand.
Intellectual
Integrity
Intellectual integrity
(also known as character) is the recognition of the need to be true to your own
thinking and to hold yourself accountable to the same standards one expects
others to accomplish. When I have intellectual integrity, my beliefs and actions
are consistent. We practice what we preach, for example. We don't say one thing
and do another. I cannot be fair to others if I am justified in thinking and
acting in contradictory ways. The opposite of
intellectual integrity is intellectual hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a form of
injustice. All humans sometimes fail to act with intellectual integrity. When
we do, we reveal a lack of fair-mindedness on our part.
Faith In Reason
Faith in reason is based on the belief of giving the freest play to reason. Reason encourages people to come to their own conclusions, analysis and recommendations. It is the faith that with proper coaching and mentoring, people can think for themselves and develop viewpoints, draw conclusions, and develop clear, accurate, relevant and logical thought processes. They can persuade others by using reason with evidence. In the place of faith in reason, people can have uncritical or "blind" faith including: 1. faith in charismatic leaders (Hitler for example who manipulated and excited Germany to support genocide of an entire religious group), 2. faith in institutional authorities (employers, police, judges, priests, evangelical preachers, etc), 3. faith in some social group (business community, church, political party, etc), etc..
Fairmindedness
To be fair-minded is to treat every assertion applicable for a situation with an open mind and attitude in an unbiased and unprejudiced way. We usually prejudge the views of others and put them in either agrees or disagrees categories. Being aware of the importance and need to treat all viewpoints alike without reference to one's own feelings or vested interests of friends, community, company, groups etc is the first step to fairmindedness.
References
Intellectual Perseverance: Working Through Complexity and
Frustration. Toastmasters
International. Retrieved from
http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/thinking_tools/ch03lev1sec7.html.
Nosich, Gerald M. (2012).
Learning To Think Things Through - A Guide To Critical
Thinking Across The Curriculum.
Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Valuable Intellectual Virtues (June 1996).
Foundation For Critical Thinking. Retrieved
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