Philip Dow's book, "Virtuous Minds: Intellectual Character Development" is an excellent complement to J. P. Moreland's "Love Your God with All Your Mind." Where Moreland's is a book directed to the philosopher or the philosophically minded, Dow's book is the everyman's introduction to the intellectual virtues. Filled with amusing anecdotes and solid historical examples, Dow brings the potentially dense philosophical ideas to the masses, and the educator in particular.
But let me not carry on in this formal vein. Basically, Mr. Dow, as I better know him, was one of my high school teachers. I admired him from afar and when I got to have him as my U.S. history teacher, I drank in what he had to say. My views of U.S. history are still highly influenced by what he taught me (specifically the role of Protestantism in the nation's development!), but even more than that it was his ideas regarding intellectual virtues that stuck with me.
I entered my undergraduate days at Houghton College with an understanding that intellectual curiosity was not merely the characteristic of a freakish nerd (although, that description might be apt... after all, who's writing a review of a book on intellectual virtues for the fun of it?), but was a desirable trait and indeed one that ought to be honed further. Before Shirley Mullen, our beloved college president (and I'm serious when I say that she's well-loved!), told us to become lifelong learners, I had already heard and absorbed this message from Mr. Dow.
I focus on intellectual curiosity because this is what really stuck with me, but I recall very clearly the emphasis on intellectual honesty and carefulness because these were spoken of at length while we worked on our senior research projects. In "Virtuous Minds", Mr. Dow expanded on my understanding of these concepts with a connection between intellectual carefulness and glibly accepting gossip and pointing out that one's thinking habits can positively influence one's experience of life, not just the outcomes of particular scenarios.
Unfortunately, I still felt like there was something lacking with the book. There were only passing references to Postman, Moreland, and a few other thinkers whom I think have a lot of really good things to say on the topic of current anti-intellectualism and I would have liked to have seen a more in depth treatment of this topic. I understand that this was not the primary purpose of the book, but any book that seeks to promote the intellectual virtues should at least somewhat address some of the theories regarding its lack in contemporary culture. The book fairly dripped with the ideas of Chesterton and Lewis (much to my delight) and I would have liked to have seen some of the ideas of these other authors more incorporated.
I began by comparing "Virtuous Minds" with Moreland's "Love Your God..." I read Moreland's book a few months ago and it blew my mind. It was everything I needed to hear. I devoured that book! You see, in the intervening years between college and now I felt like I had lost the intellectual community which had surrounded me since... well, since kindergarten! I suddenly felt adrift in a sea of anti-intellectualism. Moreland encouraged me not to give up on my individual intellectual pursuits of lifelong learning, but it was Mr. Dow's book that encouraged me not to give up on the general state of intellectual virtues in society.
What Mr. Dow's book did more than anything else though was to point out how the pursuit of the intellectual virtues results in loving God and loving my neighbour. Ironically, "Virtuous Minds" was more effective in showing me how these virtues result in loving God than Moreland's "Love Your God with All Your Mind"! "Virtuous Minds" showed me the connection between being fair-minded and being a good listener (and the value of that). It reminded me that how we treat other people's ideas is as important as how we treat other people, since their ideas are part of who they are. And the conclusion that the purpose is to become intellectually virtuous rather than merely doing intellectually virtuous things was very apropos.
So, whether you need a kick in the pants to jumpstart your pursuit of knowledge or a reminder on the importance of the intellectual virtues, I highly recommend both "Love Your God..." and "Virtuous Minds".
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