Welcome from the ICI Co-Directors

“The pursuit of each student's intellectual development to the full measure of God-given talents rightly remains a prominent goal of Jesuit education. Its aim, however, has never been simply to amass a store of information or preparation for a profession…”

– Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.

 

Welcome!

And sincere thanks for your interest in the LMU Intellectual Character Initiative. Allow us to offer you here a quick explanation, a little motivation, and a warm invitation.

We are convinced that in addition to the core knowledge and skills that a university ought to help its students develop, LMU should also emphasize the development of each student's intellectual character. An LMU education, that is, ought to help its students understand and form intellectual virtues, like curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, intellectual courage, and intellectual perseverance. In fact, our project will be focused on these five intellectual virtues, which we are somewhat sheepishly calling "The Virtues of the Lion Mind."

Now for some motivation. Deep down, what do we really want for LMU graduates? Yes, sure, we want them to be knowledgeable about their main courses of study, prepared to take their next educational or vocational steps, ready to be of service to their communities and to take up their civic responsibilities. And, no, these aren't at all shallow aims. But go just a little bit deeper and we think you will find that we all want our graduates to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers; people who have developed the habits of mind that will allow them to be excellent inquirers into all of the topics they will encounter in their lives, many of which we can hardly predict. These habits of mind—the dispositions that constitute lifelong learning and productive critical thinking—just are, we claim, the intellectual virtues.

The invitation, on the surface, is to explore this website and begin to get a sense of the range of resources we are making available for the cultivation of intellectual virtues in our students. Below this surface, though, we hope you will hear and accept the invitation to engage in an ongoing and constructive conversation about what an LMU education is all about. See further below for how to learn more and get involved.

We are very much at your service,

Dan Speak and Jason Baehr
Co-Directors of the Intellectual Character Initiative