Philip Dow's Virtuous Minds Summary

Philip Dow’s Virtuous Minds has given me insight on what it means to have good intellectual character. In chapter 1, Dow discusses intellectual courage. This was the most important and insightful chapter that I have read thus far. I do not think I ever considered how important intellectual courage is to all aspects of life. In order to gain a deeper knowledge of life or be “fair-minded”, we must be willing to consider arguments that are different from our own. I appreciated Dow’s mention of Martin Luther. Martin Luther refused to recant his beliefs, and his fight for truth led to the Protestant Reformation. Before reading that, I never considered the importance of intellectual courageousness. I came to the realization that all the great people in history that have made changes had to be courageous. They faced embarrassment, and in some cases, persecution in death. In fact, the human rights I have today is the result of people that were intellectually courageous. Intellectual courage is the most important to me because intellectual courage is how the world gets changed.

Dow uses the example of the student that is fearful to raise her hand due to what her peers might think of her. As a result, she cannot grow and continues to fall behind. In contrast, if she raises her hand she will gain confidence and knowledge. From this I learned that if I won’t take small steps to intellectual courage, like raising my hand, then how can I show greater acts of intellectual courage? I learned that I must always practice being courageous if I am to develop an intellectually courageous