Mental Virtues

I really enjoyed David Brooks opinion piece on mental virtual, although I probably would have come up with a different label than “virtue”.

Here is his list.  Tell me which ones you agree with are universally good to have:

• Love of learning
• Willingness to hold unpopular views (but not stuck to them)
• Knowing when to be daring and when to be cautious
• Being firm – a balance between bending to disagreement and rigidity
• Humility – not letting the need to be accurate turn into a need to be right and/or a need to feel superior.
• Autonomy – balance between accepting the guidance of others and resisting it.
• Willingness to share knowledge – knowledge can be valuable, so sharing it involves some risk.
• Willingness to share credit – being credited with developing knowledge has value, so sharing credit involves some cost.
• Understanding context – we are all subject to human nature and cultural biases.  Can we recognize and account for these?

I am really interested in your thoughts.  Especially if I misinterpreted any of his ideas.