The Philosophy and Theology of Intellectual Humility

Intellectual humility is a virtue, a character trait that allows the intellectually humble person to think and reason well. It is plausibly related to open-mindedness, a sense of one's own fallibility, and a healthy recognition of one's intellectual debts to others. If intellectual humility marks a mean between extremes, then related vices would be (on the one side) intellectual arrogance, closed-mindedness, and overconfidence in one's own opinions and intellectual powers, and (on the other side) undue timidity in one's intellectual life, or even intellectual cowardice. The Philosophy and Theology of Intellectual Humility project will focus on a variety of philosophical and theological issues relevant to the topic of intellectual humility. This project aims to gain a better understanding of the nature and value of intellectual humility, employ and develop recent empirical research on intellectual humility and related subjects, and investigate issues related to intellectual humility, such as its relation to other virtues and/or vices, its place in the broader context of virtue epistemology, the role of humility in disagreement, its connection to problems of religious pluralism, and its implications for issues of divine hiddenness. This project will lay the groundwork for further research on how to foster greater intellectual humility in individuals and civil society.