a.k.a. insight, perception, understanding

Good intentions alone are not enough. You must also cultivate “discernment” in order to translate your good intentions into beneficial actions. This means learning what actions are really beneficial, what consequences are most likely to follow from certain actions, and so forth. Only reality-based good intentions are really compassionate.

Complementary virtues¶

• perspective
• phrónēsis
• rationality
• wisdom

Contrasting vices¶

TBD

Virtues possibly in tension¶

TBD

How to acquire or strengthen it¶

TBD

Notes and links¶

• Aristotle on understanding

Mentioned elsewhere¶

TBD

Inspirational quotes¶

• “The future offers very little hope for those who expect that our new mechanical slaves will offer us a world in which we may rest from thinking. Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and our intelligence. The world of the future will be an ever more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by our robot slaves.” ―Norbert Wiener
• “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” —MLK, Jr.