Intellectual Virtues vs. Intellectual Vices

Virtues

* clarity
* consistency
* non-contradiction
* sanity
* honesty
* forthrightness (going straight to the point; frank; direct;)
* subtlety
* profundity
* analysis wed to synthesis (or unification) (often times thinkers don't balance these two intellectual skills. They go to an extreme analysis without synthesis. It is much more difficult to synthesize ideas)
* poise
* wisdom (an ability to conceive underlying or hidden relations beyond appearances)
* elan
* athleticism (sometimes thought strikes me as almost athletic. It mimics a state of health in the body. In terms of intellectual life, it doesn't pay to sit around smoking and drinking all day! This might payoff in poetry but not in physics, philosophy, and theology)
* genuine joy (if the person doesn't seem to enjoy his subject chances are he won't have a high-quality of insight)
* organization
* definition
* rigor
* freedom (you don't have to rely to much on authority or cut and paste quotes from whoever)
* simplicity
* newness (conceptions no one else has thought of)
* detachment (emotionally as well as intellectually. One can even detach oneself from one's own ideas)
* open-mindedness

not easy to mingle all these together, and we are always in the process of rethinking and growing, but its good to have some references as to what is considered virtuous thought.

Vices

* ambiguity
* inconsistency
* contradiction
* overuse and over reliance on figures of speech and analogy
* laziness
* confusion
* disorganization
* shallowness
* pettiness
* dishonesty
* stubbornness (imagine that an idea you came up with may have happened on a day when your brain was overloaded with toxins or you were malnourished or fatigued. Or perhaps you didn't marshal enough facts. It doesn't pay to hold to that idea until you die. Always good to rethink, and move forward)
* over-sensitivity
* over-thinking, cluttered thought. too many ideas
* foppishness (excessively refined and fastidious in taste and manner.)
* oversight
* close-minded
* lack of originality
* beating around the bush