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The final Faculty Pub Night of the 2022-23 season features Jason Baehr, professor of philosophy (Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts). He will discuss his recent book, "Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues."

About Faculty Pub Night: 

Students, staff, faculty, alumni, and members of the public are all invited to the 2022-2023 series of Faculty Pub Night at the William H. Hannon Library. Eight LMU professors are selected annually to discuss their latest publication or project in a comfortable setting and format that welcomes diverse perspectives for an inclusive conversation aimed to educate the entire community. All Faculty Pub Nights are free and open to the public.

About the Author's Work:

What is the point or purpose of education? In "Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues" (Harvard Education Press, 2022), professor Jason Baehr argues that a fundamental aim of education is to help students cultivate “intellectual virtues,” which are the character strengths of good thinkers and learners, such as curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, and intellectual courage.

There’s an urgent need for these qualities in today’s social and political climate. For democracy to flourish, citizens need a healthy public discourse and reliable access to credible information. Alas, public discourse today is too often marked by intellectual “vices” like closed-mindedness, dogmatism, intellectual arrogance, and intellectual dishonesty. And our information landscape is rife with filter bubbles, “deep fakes,” and misinformation, making it very difficult to separate fact from fiction. In conditions like these, responsible citizenship requires asking good questions (curiosity), being appropriately skeptical (caution), thinking for ourselves (autonomy), admitting our intellectual limitations (humility), considering alternative perspectives (open-mindedness), maintaining the courage of our convictions (courage), and persisting in the search for truth (tenacity).

Recognized by the Greater Good Science Center as one of its “Favorite Books for Educators in 2022,” "Deep in Thought" explores the “principles, postures, and practices” involved with educating for intellectual virtues. It draws on Baehr’s theoretical expertise in “virtue epistemology” and his practical experience in education, which includes extensive work with K-12 and post-secondary teachers and co-founding the Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach with a grant of over $1 million from the John Templeton Foundation. The book is written for anyone interested in the purpose of education and the habits of mind required for successful learning and responsible citizenship in the 21st century. 

About the Author:

Jason Baehr has been teaching at LMU for nearly 20 years. He works mainly in the area of “virtue epistemology,” which is an approach to the philosophical study of knowledge that focuses on the character attributes required for good thinking and learning. From 2012-2015, he was director of the Intellectual Virtues & Education Project at LMU, which was sponsored by a grant of over $1 million from the John Templeton Foundation. As part of this project, he co-founded the Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach, a public charter middle school systematically designed around helping students develop intellectual virtues in the context of academic teaching and learning. His other books include "The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology" (Oxford University Press, 2011) and "Intellectual Virtues and Education: Essays in Applied Virtue Epistemology" (Routledge, 2016). He lives with his family in Long Beach.

Learn more at Jason's website.

About the William H. Hannon Library:

The William H. Hannon Library fosters excellence in academic achievement through an array of distinctive services that enable learners to feed their curiosity, experience new worlds, develop their ideas, inform their decision-making, and inspire others. More information can be found at http://library.lmu.edu

For more information about this event, contact the Outreach and Engagement team at the William H. Hannon library via email at library.outreach@lmu.edu or call 310-338-5234.