Cultivating Intellectual Virtues as an Antidote to Post-Truth Challenges

Summary

Philosopher Jason Baehr argues that in our 'post-truth' era where competing perspectives and misinformation abound, knowledge has become a survival skill essential for sustaining democracy and trust. While technology provides unprecedented access to information, it also overwhelms users and creates echo chambers that erode critical thinking. Baehr critiques two common responses - surrendering to information overload or selectively consuming confirming content - and proposes cultivating intellectual virtues like curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, and perseverance as the antidote. He emphasizes that educational institutions are particularly well-positioned to systematically develop these thinking habits.