According to a recent National Business Ethics Survey (2013), almost one out of two U.S. employees has witnessed wrongdoing in their workplace. Half of them did not report the wrongdoing or take any action. Why do some individuals display courage at work while many of their co-workers — when faced with the same situation — do not?

Growing up, I had a lot of questions.  As a toddler, I asked all the usual “why” questions, and as I got older, my questions became ever more abstract.  My mother wasn’t surprised when I eventually decided to study philosophy.  I also learned that there were certain questions that you didn’t ask.  In particular, I learned the old adage, “Never discuss religion or politics in polite company.”

In her analysis of the parable of The Good Samaritan, Simone Weil emphasizes the acute, gentle attentiveness of the Samaritan when he encounters someone in need: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” This generosity is something that must be cultivated. According to Weil, growing generosity for the other is a creative act, something that requires imagination and “is analogous to genius.”

I have upwards of sixteen years of formal education, and only once in any classroom was I encouraged to talk honestly and openly about the sense of mystery and depth that I frequently experience in my own life. […] Why can’t we ever talk in higher education about what gives lives real meaning?

Some character traits, such as humility and open-mindedness, help us learn and gain knowledge. They are virtues that enable us to think well. Other character traits, such as arrogance and closed-mindedness, impede our learning and ability to think well. Suppose that one of our aims, as educators, is to help our students develop virtues of thinking well. How can we do that? Are there classroom activities and assignments that could help? Would classroom activities and assignments be enough, or would broader systemic changes be needed? Are there particular virtues, like humility and open-mindedness, on which educators should focus? Or are there problems with focusing on virtues like humility at the expense of other virtues like pride?