Intellectual Humility - by Ian Church & Peter Samuelson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Why care about intellectual humility? What is an intellectual virtue? How do we know who is intellectually humble? The nature of intellectual virtues is a topic of ancient interest. But contemporary philosophy has experienced unparalleled energy and concern for one particular virtue over the past 30 years: intellectual humility. Intellectual Humility: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Science draws on leading research to provide an engaging and up-to-date guide to understanding what it is and why it's important.

By using ten big questions to introduce the concept, this introduction presents a vibrant account of the ideas behind intellectual humility. Covering themes from philosophy, psychology, education, social science, and divinity, it addresses issues such as:

What human cognition tells us about intellectual virtues
The extent to which traits and dispositions are stable from birth or learned habits
How emotions affect our ability to be intellectually humble
The best way to handle disagreement
The impact intellectual humility has on religion or theological commitments

Written for students taking the University of Edinburgh's online course, this textbook is for anyone interested in finding out more about intellectual humility, how it can be developed and where it can be applied.

Review Quotes

An excellent and lively treatment of one of the most important intellectual topics of our time.

Church and Samuelson have provided an interdisciplinary examination of intellectual humility that is provocative, theoretically sophisticated, and empirically rigorous. Philosophers, psychologists, and religious scholars interested in an engaging and nuanced approach to understanding intellectual humility will discover a veritable treasure in this volume.

This book is a landmark work in the scholarly study of intellectual humility, the most comprehensive and genuinely interdisciplinary treatment available. Not only are the authors authorities on intellectual humility, they embody the virtue that they have set out to study.

About the Author

Ian M. Church is a Research Fellow in Philosophy at Saint Louis University, USA.

Peter L. Samuelson is Director of Research and Evaluation at the Thrive Foundation for Youth, USA.