Abstract:

The question of virtues is now increasingly relevant not only as a subject of philosophical discussions but also of the psychology of morality and character education. Concerning the necessary change in the philosophy of education, it has become an intersection of interdisciplinarity in philosophical, psychological and pedagogical theories. The reason is the need to educate a critical and morally responsible person. The theoretical part of the study aimed to describe the integrity of critical and moral thinking in the concepts of Aristotle, Aquinas and the current conception of R. W. Paul through the function of phronesis - the basic integrating intellectual virtue. The empirical research aimed to find out how the students of the University of Prešov in Prešov (N = 241) evaluate the development of intellectual virtues in academic education. The basic measuring tool was a modified scheme of intellectual traits of a critical and moral thinker, in which students evaluated on a 7-point scale how current academic education develops their individual intellectual virtues. Due to their necessary equipment as teacher graduates, we found insufficient support for the development of intellectual virtues in academic education. This requires first identifying and discovering the thinking that is putting us in trouble and the one that will allow us to grow. Consequently, it is necessary to focus on the stages of development of critical and moral thinking of educators, through which they must move forward because their success depends on the intellectual quality of education. Research recommendations lead to the need to promote, in particular, intellectual self-esteem as a basis for success.

Keywords:

Intellectual virtues, virtues of the disciplined mind, features of the undisciplined mind, the level of development of students' intellectual virtues.