Love of learning includes both the desire to acquire knowledge and delight in achieving it. It includes curiosity about the world and a proper regard for the difficulty of careful inquiry. (Thus it is connected to intellectual humility). Love of learning leads to a desire to learn the standards of particular fields of study, and a desire to expand the fields of knowledge one has already acquired.
Intellectual Virtues
"Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
– George Bernard Shaw
Love of Learning
Intellectual Humility
Humility in general is the virtue of facing up to the truth about oneself--neither overvaluing nor undervaluing one’s abilities and accomplishments. This virtue also involves admitting the limits of one’s epistemic perspective. The intellectually humble person does not deny her accomplishments, but shows a lack of concern about intellectual status, and is sensitive to the ways in which one’s beliefs can go wrong even though they seem right.
Open-Mindedness
Open-mindedness is the readiness to step outside one’s own point of view to consider the merits of alternative perspectives, with a willingness to change one’s beliefs when that is warranted. Open-mindedness follows from a genuine love of truth, and the humility to admit that one's own view might be mistaken.
