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Resources

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For UCI Students

UCI’s Division of Undergraduate Education has a dedicated webpage offering advice for students on making use of the Anteater Virtues modules: 

As explained there, you can self-enroll in the modules using this link: 

In addition, there is also the option to self-enroll in the ‘Integrity’ module only, using this link: 

Note that students don’t need to take these modules as part of a UCI course, as the modules are available to all UCI students, regardless of whether they have been assigned to you by faculty. 

For UCI Faculty

UCI’s Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) has a dedicated webpage offering advice for faculty on making use of the Anteater Virtues modules: 

This webpage offers tips on using these modules in your courses. In particular, you can at present either make use of the modules as a whole (including selecting from them as you see fit) or assigning only the ‘Integrity’ module. If you would like to check-out the syllabus for the full set of modules, then this is available here. Faculty can encourage their students to self-enroll for the full set of Anteater Virtues modules using this link: 

Alternatively, if you wish for your students to only self-enroll on the ‘Integrity’ module, then give them this link: 

We will be adding supporting educational materials for the Anteater Virtues modules in due course, so please keep watching this space. 

For Non-UCI Students and Teachers

There is a completely free public version of the full set of the Anteater Virtues modules available to everyone who is interested in using them, whether an individual or an educational institution. Here is the link: 

In addition, we will in due course be providing supporting educational materials to help with the use of these modules in an educational setting.

If you are interested in employing the Anteater Virtues in your educational establishment—whether it be a university, community college, high school or wherever—and you would like further information from the project team about how best to do this, then please contact the project Director, Professor Duncan Pritchard, directly at dhpritch@uci.edu

Research

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The Anteater Virtues project is not just an innovative pedagogical initiative but also a research project. A core goal of the project is to advance both the theoretical research concerned with educating for virtuous intellectual character and also the empirical research concerned with the measurement of such a pedagogical approach. 

Research Background to the Project

A selection of publications by project members (in bold) that provides a snapshot of the research background to the Anteater Virtues project: 

Arum, R., Roksa J., & Cook, A. (Eds.), (2016). Improving Quality in American Higher Education: Learning Outcomes and Assessments for the 21st Century, San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. 

Arum, R., & Roksa, J. (2014). Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 

—— (2011). Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 

Baehr, J. (2021). Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. 

—— (2019). ‘Intellectual Virtues, Critical Thinking, and the Aims of Education’, Routledge Handbook of Social Epistemology, (eds.) P. Graham, M. Fricker, D. Henderson, N. Pedersen & J. Wyatt, 447-57, London: Routledge. 

—— (2015). Cultivating Good Minds: A Philosophical & Practical Guide to Educating for Intellectual Virtues, (available at: https://intellectualvirtues.org/why-should-we-educate-for-intellectual-virtues-2-2/). 

—— (Ed.), (2016a). Intellectual Virtues and Education: Essays in Applied Virtue Epistemology, London: Routledge. 

—— (2016b). ‘Is Intellectual Character Growth a Realistic Educational Aim?’, Journal of Moral Education 45, 117-31. 

—— (2013). ‘Educating for Intellectual Virtues: From Theory to Practice’, Journal of the Philosophy of Education 47, 248-262. 

—— (2011). The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Carter, J. A., & Pritchard, D. H. (2017). ‘Epistemic Situationism, Epistemic Dependence, and the Epistemology of Education’, Epistemic Situationism, (eds.) M. Alfano & A. Fairweather, 168-91, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Pritchard, D. H. (2021a). ‘Intellectual Humility and the Epistemology of Disagreement’, Synthese 198, 1711-23. 

—— (2021b). ‘Intellectual Virtues and the Epistemic Value of Truth’, Synthese 198, 5515–28. 

—— (2021c). ‘Philosophy in Prison and the Cultivation of Intellectual Character’ [invited], Journal of Prison Education and Reentry 7, 130-43. 

—— (2019). ‘Philosophy in Prisons: Intellectual Virtue and the Community of Philosophical Inquiry’, Teaching Philosophy [DOI: 10.5840/teachphil201985108]. 

—— (2018). ‘Neuromedia and the Epistemology of Education’ [invited], Metaphilosophy 49, 328-49. 

—— (2016). ‘Intellectual Virtue, Extended Cognition, and the Epistemology of Education’, Intellectual Virtues and Education: Essays in Applied Virtue Epistemology, (ed.) J. Baehr, 113-27, London: Routledge. 

—— (2013). ‘Epistemic Virtue and the Epistemology of Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education 47, 236-47. 

—— (2012). ‘Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology’, Journal of Philosophy 109, 247-79. 

Pritchard, D. H., Millar, A., & Haddock, A. (2010). The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Pritchard, D. H., English, A., & Ravenscroft, J. (2021). ‘Extended Cognition, Assistive Technology and Education’, Synthese [DOI: 10.1007/s11229-021-03166-9]. 

Project Research Outputs

A selection of the key research outputs that have been generated by the project so far: 

Croce, M., & Pritchard, D. H. (2022). ‘Education as the Social Cultivation of Intellectual Virtue’, Social Virtue Epistemology, (eds.) M. Alfano, C. Klein & J. de Ridder, 583-601, London: Routledge. [pdf]

Orona, G. A., (2021a). ‘Gotta Know Why! Preliminary Evidence Supporting a Theory of Virtue Learning as Applied to Intellectual Curiosity’, Theory and Research in Education 19, 279-95.

——   (2021b). ‘Philosophy’s Rematch: A New Conceptualization of the Study of Higher Education’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 20, 386-402.

Orona, G. A., & Pritchard, D. H. (2021). ‘Inculcating Curiosity: Pilot Results of an Online Module to Enhance Undergraduate Intellectual Virtue’, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 47, [DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2021.1919988]. 

Orona, G. A., Pritchard, D. H., Arum, R., Eccles, J., Dang, Q.-V., Copp, D., Herrmann, D., Rushing, B., Bustamente, A. S., & Greene, J. A. (2023). ‘Epistemic Virtue in Higher Education: Testing the Mechanisms of Intellectual Character Development’, Current Psychology, [DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05005-1].

Orona, G. A., & Trautwein, U. (2023). ‘Thinking Disposition Education Improves Cognitive Reflection: Experimental Results from Two Intervention Studies’, manuscript.

Pritchard, D. H. (2023). ‘Educating for Virtuous Intellectual Character and Valuing Truth’, Philosophies [invited], 8, 29, [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8020029]. 

—— (2022a). ‘Cultivating Intellectual Virtues’, Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Education, (ed.) R. Curren, 127-36, London: Routledge. [pdf]

—— (2022b). ‘Intellectual Virtue and Its Role in Epistemology’, Asian Journal of Philosophy [invited keynote essay as part of the special issue, ‘The Epistemology of Duncan Pritchard’], 1, [DOI: 10.1007/s44204-022-00024-4]. 

—— (2022c). ‘Virtuous Arguing With Conviction and Humility’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice [invited], [DOI: 10.1007/s10677-022-10328-2]. 

—— (2020). ‘Educating For Intellectual Humility and Conviction’ [invited], Journal of Philosophy of Education 54, 398-409. [pdf]

Talks and Interviews

A selection of research presentation and interviews related to the project: 

2020 

Pritchard, D. H., ‘Intellectual Virtues and the Epistemology of Education’, keynote talk at the Human Cognition and Learning: An Educational Perspective international conference at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. 

2021 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Why Curiosity, Integrity, Humility and Tenacity Contribute to the Good Life’, UCI Podcast Interview with Aaron Orlowski, <https://soundcloud.com/theucipodcast/why-curiosity-integrity-humility-and-tenacity-contribute-to-the-good-life>. 

Pritchard, D. H., ‘Virtuous Disagreement Without Concession’, invited talk at the Ethics of Argumentation online speaker series, organized by the Argumentation Network of the Americas. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Virtuous Education in the Digital Age’, keynote talk at the What has Industry 4.0 in Store for Emerging Economies? International conference, University of Mumbai, India. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Bringing the Intellectual Virtues into University Curricula’, keynote talk at the International Society for Teachers, Administrators and Researchers annual international conference, Bangkok, Thailand. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Virtuous Education and Neuromedia’, invited talk at the Cognitive Diversity research seminar, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico. 

2022 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Educating for Intellectual Virtue’, invited talk at the Association for Philosophy of Education’s ‘Virtue and Skill in Critical Thinking and its Teaching’, session at the 2022 Central American Philosophical Association meeting, Chicago, USA. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Virtuous Education in the Digital Age’, keynote talk at the World Human Sciences and Management International conference, Center for Adivasi Research and Development, Bhubaneswar, India. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Intellectual Virtue and its Role in Epistemology’, invited talk at the Cognitive Science research seminar, University of Messina, Messina, Italy. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Educating for Intellectual Virtue’, invited talk at the ‘Recent Work on Intellectual Character’ international conference at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil. 

2023 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Education and the Intellectual Virtues: An Interview with Duncan Pritchard’, The Intentional Clinician Podcast (Dr. Paul Krast), <https://healthforlifegr.com/what-are-intellectual-virtues/>. 

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Duncan Pritchard on Educating for Virtuous Intellectual Character’, Office Hours with John Gardner Podcast, <https://www.buzzsprout.com/1808070/12682488>

Pritchard, D. H. ‘Virtuous Arguing with Conviction and Humility’, invited talk at the Intellectual Humility, Rationality and Self-Doubt conference, University of Leeds, UK.

Events

A selection of research events associated with the project:

2019

Workshop on ‘Education and Virtue’. Speakers: Jason Baehr (Philosophy, LMU), Michael Brady (Philosophy, Glasgow), Julia Lupton (English, UCI), and Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI).

2021

Center for Knowledge, Technlogy & Society Annual Epistemology of Education Lecture. Speaker: Harvey Siegel (Miami U). ‘Rationality as the Aim of Education’

2022

Center for Knowledge, Technology & Society Annual Epistemology of Education Lecture. Andrea English (Edinburgh). ‘Dewey Uncertainty and Non-Affirmative Democratic Education’

2023

Center for Knowledge, Technology & Society Annual Epistemology of Education Lecture. Speaker: Nancy Snow (Kansas U). ‘The Anteater Virtues: What does it mean to be a good knower, and why should students – or anyone, for that matter, care?

Partners

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External Funding & UCI Support

The Anteater Virtues project is generously funded by the University of California, Irvine, via the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation. From 2022-25, the project has also received substantial funding from the John Templeton Foundation (‘Embedding the Development of Intellectual Character within a University Curriculum’, #62330; PI: Duncan Pritchard; co-PIs: Richard Arum & Jason Baehr). The Anteater Virtues project is hosted by the Center for Knowledge, Technology & Society and works closely with the UCI MUST project.

Partner Organizations

The project has several partners, with more to be announced soon. These include: 

A middle school and a high school in Long Beach—both called Intellectual Virtues Academy—that also have an intellectual character-based curriculum. 

Professor Genia Schönbaumsfeld’s European Research Council Advanced Grant, ‘The Ethics of Doubt: Kierkegaard, Scepticism and Conspiracy Theory’. Professor Schönbaumsfeld will be collaborating on the construction of several advanced Anteater Virtues modules and will also integrating these modules into the curriculum at her home institution, University of Southampton, UK. 

A project at Universidad Austral in Buenos Aeries, Argentina, that is also exploring integrating educating for virtuous intellectual character into a University-level curriculum. 

Course Syllabus

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Anteater Virtues Course SyllabusDownload

Introductory Modules

Introductory Module 1: Introducing the Intellectual Virtues

‘Introducing the Anteater Virtues’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 1: Introducing the Anteater Virtues 

‘The Virtues’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 2: The Virtues 

‘Education and the Intellectual Virtues’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 3: Education and the Intellectual Virtues 

‘The Intellectual Virtues in Action’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 4: The Intellectual Virtues in Action 

Further Reading 

There is lots of useful information about the intellectual virtues, including their relevance for education, at Jason Baehr’s Educating for Intellectual Virtues webpage. (Note that Jason Baehr, who is a Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, is also centrally involved with the Anteater Virtues project). 

Introductory Module 2: Curiosity

‘Introducing Curiosity’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 1: Introducing Curiosity 

‘Curiosity in Ancient Greece’, Darby Vickers (Philosophy, University of San Diego) 

Quiz 2: Curiosity in Ancient Greece 

‘Curiosity as an Intellectual Virtue’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 3: Curiosity as an Intellectual Virtue 

‘Historical Figure: Isaac Newton’, Michael Dennin (Physics and Astronomy, UCI) 

Quiz 4: Historical Figure: Isaac Newton 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Biorobotics’, David Reinkensmeyer (Biorobotics, UCI) 

Quiz 5: Disciplinary Perspective on Curiosity (I) 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Humanities’, Tyrus Miller (English, UCI) 

Quiz 6: Disciplinary Perspective on Curiosity (II) 

‘Curiosity in Action’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 7: Curiosity in Action 

Further Reading 

Lani Watson, ‘Curiosity and Inquisitiveness’, Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, (ed.) H. Battaly, 155-66, (London: Routledge, 2019). 

Introducing Module 3: Intellectual Humility

‘Introducing Intellectual Humility’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 1: Introducing Intellectual Humility 

‘Historical Figure: Desmond Tutu’, James Kyung-Jin Lee (Asian American Studies, UCI) 

Quiz 2: Historical Figure: Desmond Tutu 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: History’, Douglas Haynes (History, UCI) 

Quiz 3: Disciplinary Perspective on Intellectual Humility (I) 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: English’, Julia Lupton (English, UCI) 

Quiz 4: Disciplinary Perspective on Intellectual Humility (II) 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Comparative Literature’, Georges Van Den Abbeele (Comparative Literature, UCI) 

Quiz 5: Disciplinary Perspective on Intellectual Humility (III) 

Further Reading 

Nancy Snow, ‘Intellectual Humility’, Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, (ed.) H. Battaly, 178-95, (London: Routledge, 2019). 

Introducing Module 4: Intellectual Tenacity

‘Introducing Intellectual Tenacity’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 1: Introducing Intellectual Tenacity 

‘Historical Figure: Marie Curie’, Vy Dong (Chemistry, UCI) 

Quiz 2: Historical Figure: Marie Curie 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Physics & Astronomy’, Michael Dennin (Physics & Astronomy, UCI) 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Education’, Richard Arum (Education, UCI) 

Quiz 3: Disciplinary Perspectives on Intellectual Tenacity 

Further Reading 

Nathan King, ‘Intellectual Perseverance’, Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, (ed.) H. Battaly, 256-72, (London: Routledge, 2019). 

Introducing Module 5: Integrity

‘Introducing Integrity’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 1: Introducing Integrity 

‘Historical Figure: William Shakespeare’, Julia Lipton (English, UCI) 

Quiz 2: Historical Figure: William Shakespeare 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Biological Sciences’, Brian Sato (Biological Sciences, UCI) 

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Religious Studies’, Brianne Donaldson (Religious Studies & Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 3: Disciplinary Perspectives on Integrity 

Further Reading 

Nathan King, ‘Honesty: Don’t Distort the Truth’, ch. 7 in his The Excellent Mind: Intellectual Virtues for Everyday Life, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). (Note that King’s focus on the intellectual virtue of honesty is a little more narrow than our concern with the broader intellectual virtue of integrity. Nonetheless, this chapter will be very useful further reading for this module). 

Advanced Modules

Advanced Module 1: Wisdom I: Traditions 

‘Introducing Wisdom I: Traditions’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘Wisdom in the Ancient Greek Tradition’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

Quiz 1: Wisdom in the Ancient Greek Tradition

‘Wisdom in Classical Indian Philosophy’, Jonardon Ganeri (University of Toronto, Canada)

Quiz 2: Wisdom in Classical Indian Philosophy

‘Wisdom in the African Tradition’, Paul Irikefe (Philosophy, UCI)

Quiz 3: Wisdom in the African Tradition 

‘Wisdom in the Confucian Tradition’, Chienkuo Mi (Soochow University, Taiwan)

Quiz 4: Wisdom in the Confucian Tradition

Further Reading

For a broader look at the idea of wisdom in various schools of South and East Asian philosophical thought, see John M. Koller’s Asian Philosophies, 7th edition (New York: Routledge, 2018). For example, chapter 5 discusses the Perfection of Wisdom in Indian Buddhist tradition. 

Advanced Module 2: Wisdom II: Applications 

‘Introducing Wisdom II: Applications’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘How to Live Wisely’, Valerie Tiberius (University of Minnesota)

Quiz 1: How to Live Wisely

‘A Map to the Next World’, Joy Harjo (Poet Laureate)

‘Wisdom and ‘A Map to the Next World’’, Alicia Carroll (Comparative Literature, UCI)

Quiz 2: Wisdom and ‘A Map to the Next World’

‘Woman Wisdom’, Julia Lupton (English, UCI)

Quiz 3: Woman Wisdom

Further Reading

Ali Intezari and David Pauleen’s Wisdom, Analytics, and Wicked Problems: Integral Decision Making For the Data Age (Oxford: Routledge, 2019) draws on a range of wisdom traditions, from ancient to modern, and offers a practical model for incorporating wisdom into management decision making (in light of the Information Age). See Part III of their work, for example. 

Advanced Module 3: Intellectual Vices I: Overview

‘Introducing Intellectual Vices I: Overview’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘What Makes the Intellectual Vices Bad?’, Josh Dolin (UCI, Philosophy)

Quiz 1: What Makes the Intellectual Vices Bad?

‘The Anteater Virtues and Their Vices’, Nancy Snow (Kansas University)

Quiz 2: The Anteater Virtues and Their Vices

‘Intellectual Vices of Inferiority and Superiority’, Alessandra Tanesini (Cardiff University)

Quiz 3: Intellectual Vices of Inferiority and Superiority

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Frantz Fanon: Mental Decolonization and the Intellectual Virtues’, Paul Irikefe (UCI, Philosophy)

Quiz 4: Disciplinary Perspective: Frantz Fanon: Mental Decolonization and the Intellectual Virtues

Further Reading

Quassim Cassam speaks on a podcast episode about his 2019 book Vices of the Mind: From the Intellectual to the Political. 

Advanced Module 4: Intellectual Vices II: Vices of Superiority 

‘Introducing Intellectual Vices II: Vices of Superiority’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘The Intellectual Vice of Closed-Mindedness I: What is Closed-Mindedness? ’, Heather Battaly (University of Connecticut, Storrs) 

Quiz 1: The Intellectual Vice of Closed-Mindedness I: What is Closed-Mindedness?

‘The Intellectual Vice of Closed-Mindedness II: What Makes Closed-Mindedness an Intellectual Vice? ’, Heather Battaly (University of Connecticut, Storrs) 

Quiz 2: The Intellectual Vice of Closed-Mindedness II: What Makes Closed-Mindedness an Intellectual Vice?

‘Historical Perspective: Closed Minds in an Open Universe: Quasars, Redshifts and Controversy, 1963 to 2023’, Barbara J. Becker (UCI, History)

Quiz 3: Historical Perspective: Closed Minds in an Open Universe: Quasars, Redshifts and Controversy, 1963 to 2023

‘The Vice of Intellectual Hostility’, Jason Baehr (Loyola Marymount University) 

Quiz 4: The Vice of Intellectual Hostility

‘Historical Perspective: Plato on Intellectual Hostility’, Casey Perin (UCI, Philosophy)

Quiz 5: Plato on Intellectual Hostility

Further Reading

Alessandra Tanesini, ‘Superbia, arrogance, servility, and self-abasement’, ch. 5 in her The Mismeasure of the Self: A Study in Vice Epistemology, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).

This chapter focuses on vices that oppose intellectual modesty. Superbia (haughtiness) and arrogance are vices of superiority (the topic of this Module), whereas servility and self-abasement are vices of inferiority (the topic of Advanced Module 5). Thus, this reading acts both as a further exploration of the topics covered in this Module, and as a little look ahead to the following Module.

Advanced Module 5: Intellectual Vices III: Vices of Inferiority 

‘Introducing Intellectual Vices III: Vices of Inferiority’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘The Intellectual Vice of Gullibility’, Kevin McCain (University of Alabama at Birmingham)

Quiz 1: The Intellectual Vice of Gullibility

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Failing Deliberative Ideals’, Simone Chambers (UCI, Political Science)

Quiz 2: Disciplinary Perspective: Failing Deliberative Ideals

‘Disciplinary Perspective: Gullibility’, Cailin O’Connor (UCI, LPS) 

Quiz 3: Disciplinary Perspective: Gullibility

‘Disciplinary Perspective: The Vice of Intellectual Cowardice ’, Nancy McLoughlin (UCI, History)

Quiz 4: Disciplinary Perspective: The Vice of Intellectual Cowardice

‘Historical Figure: Wittgenstein on Intellectual Courage’, Anna Boncompagni (UCI, Philosophy)

Quiz 5: Historical Figure: Wittgenstein on Intellectual Courage

Further Reading

Alessandra Tanesini, ‘Vanity, Narcissism, Timidity, and Fatalism’, ch. 6 in her The Mismeasure of the Self: A Study in Vice Epistemology, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).

This chapter focuses on vices that oppose acceptance of one’s own limitations, and concern for esteem from others. Vanity and narcissism are vices of superiority (the topic of Advanced Module 4), whereas timidity and fatalism are vices of inferiority (the topic of this Module). Thus, this reading ties the topics of Advanced Modules 4 and 5 together.

Advanced Module 6: Intellectual Virtues in the Information Age I: Concepts

‘Introducing Intellectual Virtues in the Information Age I: Concepts’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘Information, Misinformation, Disinformation’, Sven Bernecker (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 1: Information, Misinformation, Disinformation

‘Bullshit’, Aaron James (Philosophy, UCI) 

Quiz 2: Bullshit

‘Fake News’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

Quiz 3: Fake News

‘Echo Chambers’, Yuval Avnur (Scripps)

Quiz 4: Echo Chambers

‘Deep Fakes and AI Chatbots’, Orestis Palermos (Ioannina, Greece)

Quiz 5: Deep Fakes and AI Chatbots

Further Reading

Richard Heersmink, ‘A Virtue Epistemology of the Internet: Search Engines, Intellectual Virtues and Education’, Social Epistemology, 32(1), 1—12 (2018).  https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2017.1383530.

Drawing on the work of Jason Baehr, Heersmink explores how intellectual virtues should be deployed (and how intellectual vices should be avoided) when using the internet, particularly search engines. 

Advanced Module 7: Intellectual Virtues in the Information Age II: Themes

‘Introducing Intellectual Virtues in the Information Age II: Themes’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

‘Experts ’, Michel Croce (University of Genoa, Italy)

Quiz 1: Experts

‘Scepticism’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

Quiz 2: Scepticism

‘Intellectually Virtuous Arguing’, Duncan Pritchard (Philosophy, UCI)

Quiz 3: Intellectually Virtuous Arguing

‘Intellectual Courage’, Genia Schönbaumsfeld (University of Southampton, UK)

Quiz 4: Intellectual Courage

‘Intellectual Corruption’, Taylor Matthews (University of Southampton, UK)

Quiz 5: Intellectual Corruption

‘Relativism’, Annalisa Coliva (Philosophy, UCI)

Quiz 6: Relativism

‘Historical Perspective: Pascal on Rationality and Disagreement: The Framework’, Yuval Avnur (Scripps)

Quiz 7-1: Pascal on Rationality and Disagreement: The Framework

‘Historical Perspective: Pascal on Rationality and Disagreement: Application’, Yuval Avnur (Scripps)

Quiz 7-2: Pascal on Rationality and Disagreement: Application

Further Reading

Lani Watson, ‘Cultivating Curiosity in the Information Age’, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 92, 129–148 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1017/s1358246122000212. See also these two UCI MOOCs (= Massive Open Online Courses) on the topics of ‘Skepticism’ and ‘Relativism’ that are freely available on the Coursera platform: https://www.coursera.org/learn/skepticism; https://www.coursera.org/learn/relativism.

People

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Core Project Team

Director: Duncan Pritchard, Distinguished Professor in UCI’s School of Humanities and Director of the interdisciplinary Center for Knowledge, Technology and Society. Professor Pritchard has previously led high-profile and interdisciplinary educational projects, including ones specifically concerned with the development of the intellectual virtues. He is also a scholar who has published on the intellectual virtues, including their role in education.

Richard Arum, Dean Emeritus of UCI’s School of Education and Professor of Education and Sociology, is a leading scholar working on measuring educational outcomes. He is director of the ground-breaking UCI-Must project that is devoted to measuring undergraduate success at UCI. He was previously a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2013-2015) and Director of the Education Research Program at the Social Science Research Research Council (2006-2013). His monograph includes the influential Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (with Josipa Roksa, University of Chicago Press, 2011).

Jason Baehr, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount, is a leading expert on the intellectual virtues and their importance in educational context. In this regard, he has been centrally involved in the establishment of the Intellectual Virtues Academy middle school in Long Beach that is devoted to bringing the intellectual virtues into the heart of a school curriculum. His monograph includes Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues (Harvard Education Press, 2021).

Fernando Rodriguez is Assistant Professor of Teaching in UCI’s School of Education. He specialises in educational data science and is Director of the Analytics, Cognition & Education Lab.

Jeffrey M. DeVries is a postdoctoral fellow in UCI’s School of Education, where he works on the Anteater Virtues project.

Julia C. Lerch is Assistant Professor of Sociology at UCI, specializing in the sociology of education.

Paul Irikefe is a President’s and Andrew W. Mellow Foundation Postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Knowledge, Technology, and Society, School of Humanities, UCI where he works at the Anteater Virtues project.

Tom Colclough is a postdoctoral fellow in UCI’s Center for Knowledge, Technology & Society, where he works on the Anteater Virtues project.

Project Researchers

Carl Sohmer is a graduate student in UCI’s Department of Philosophy. He specializes in the intellectual virtues, including their importance in educational contexts.

Gabriel Avakian Orona is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He was previously a PhD student in UCI’s School of Education. His main area of expertise is evaluating educational outcomes, and he has published work examining the pedagogical effectiveness of the Anteater Virtues project.

Hannah Hertenstein is a graduate student in UCI’s Department of Sociology, specializing in the sociology of education.

Matthew Erkenbrack is a graduate student in UCI’s Department of Sociology.

Josh Dolin is a graduate student in UCI’s Department of Philosophy. He specializes in the intellectual virtues, including their importance in educational contexts.

Campus Steering Committee

Professor Jonathan Alexander (English; Informatics), Director of the Humanities Core Program 

Professor Julia Lupton (English), Founding Director of Illuminations, the Chancellor’s Arts & Culture Initiative and Interim Director of the UC Humanities Research Institute. 

Professor Mark Lazenby (Nursing), Dean of the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing.

Professor Michael Dennin (Physics; Astronomy), Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and Dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education.

Professor Tyrus Miller (Art History; English), Dean of the School of Humanities.

Dr. Willie Banks Jr, Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs 

External Advisory Board

Ben Kotzee is Reader in Education at the University of Birmingham University, UK. He is a leading figure working on educational theory, and editor-in-chief of the journal Theory and Research in Education (SAGE). He is specifically interested in the role of the intellectual virtues in educational settings, and has published widely on this topic. A focus of his recent work has been how best to evaluate the educational effectiveness of teaching the intellectual virtues. 

Catherine Elgin is Professor of Education at Harvard University. She has worked extensively on the importance of promoting active epistemic states, like understanding, in educational contexts. Her publications include her recent MIT Press monograph, True Enough. Her work is important to those who are interested in the role of the intellectual virtues in education due how these virtues are often conceived of in terms of the goal of promoting understanding.

Harvey Siegel is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on the philosophy of education. He has published extensively in this area, including an important monograph on the role of education in cultivating reason. He is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education. 

Jacquie Bryant is the Principal of the Intellectual Virtues Academy middle school in Long Beach. This is an innovative new free public charter school that was established with the intellectual virtues at the heart of its educational mission.

James McGrath is the Founding Director of the Intellectual Virtues Academy, which is a free public charter high school in Long Beach. Like the Intellectual Virtues Academy middle school, with which it is partnered, this is an innovative new school that was established with the intellectual virtues at the very heart of its curriculum. 

Nancy Snow is Professor of Philosophy at Kansas University. She was previously Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma where she was Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing. She is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the philosophy and psychology of the virtues. She has published extensively on this topic, including several monographs with leading academic presses. She also recently edited Oxford University Press’s Oxford Handbook of Virtue. She has a particular interest in the role of the virtues in the university curriculum.

Randall Curren is Professor of Education and Philosophy at the University of Rochester. He is a leading theorist working on the role of the virtues in education (specifically the moral and civic virtues). Aside from numerous monographs in this field, he is also the editor of Blackwell’s Companion to the Philosophy of Education. While Professor Curren’s work has tended to focus on the moral virtues in education, he has recently turned his attention to the intellectual virtues. 

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Welcome to the Anteater Virtues Project! Established in 2019, this is a unique educational project devoted to bringing the cultivation of intellectual virtues, and thereby virtuous intellectual character into the heart of UCI’s curriculum. While there has been a number of successful initiatives that have explored the relevance of the intellectual virtues for education, this is the first project of its kind to pursue this endeavor within the context of a leading R1 university. The project thus showcases the commitment to pedagogical innovation that UCI is renowned for.

The project focuses on four key intellectual virtues that we believe lie at the heart of the educational experience and which we aim to foster at UCI. These are the Anteater Virtues: curiosity, integrity, intellectual humility and intellectual tenacity. While the project spotlights the cultivation of these intellectual virtues, it is also concerned more generally with the cultivation of virtuous intellectual character and in particular avoiding intellectual vice. A range of disciplinary and historical perspective are represented throughout, including discussions of intellectual virtues as they are manifested in a variety of world traditions. The syllabus is structured around three tiers of online modules: introductory modules that students take at orientation and as part of their lower division courses, advanced modules that students take as part of their upper division courses, and capstone modules that are associated with the student’s particular major. There is also a stand-alone training module to help faculty acquire the necessary skills to promote virtuous intellectual character in their teaching. The result is that from orientation through to graduation, UCI students are given the tools to conceptualize their learning within the framework of the intellectual virtues and thereby cultivate their virtuous intellectual character.

The Anteater Virtues is not just a pedagogical initiative but also a research project. We are drawing on the very latest interdisciplinary research on the relevance of the intellectual virtues for education, some of it conducted by members of the project team, and bringing it to bear on the organisation and delivery of the educational materials. In addition, we are partnered with the ground-breaking UCI-MUST project that is devoted to measuring undergraduate educational outcomes in order to conduct a major empirical study that demonstrates the effectiveness of this pedagogical intervention.

While this project is initially focussed on improving the educational experience of undergraduates at UCI, our ultimate aim is to transform the wider conversation about the purpose of higher education. We believe that all education, and especially higher education, should be concerned not just with ensuring that students gain useful facts and cognitive skills, but that they also develop as individuals, where this includes the development of their intellectual character. Education is a lifelong process, and higher education should be geared towards preparing students for this. With this wider focus in mind, the project will be presenting the research case (both theoretical and empirical) for educating for intellectual virtuous character. It will also be making the teaching materials that it develops publicly freely available so that other educational institutions—whether in higher education or otherwise (such as high schools)—can make use of them.