ABSTRACT
Discussions of the relevance of play to intellectual development have focused on its role in skill or knowledge acquisition. Virtue epistemology offers a new perspective that allows us to explore the relationship between play and “intellectual character building”. For the virtue epistemologist, education has been successful not when students have accumulated a large database of knowledge or mastered skills of critical thinking, but when they value intellectual pursuit so much that they go on to undertake it without being told to, their efforts guided by various intellectual virtues. The reasons for studying possible contributions of play to the cultivation of intellectual virtues are fourfold. First, the field of research on play and education cannot ignore the relation between play and intellectual virtues insofar as we find virtue epistemologists’ basic claims compelling. Second, the proposed project augments the efforts of practically-minded virtue epistemologists to bring intellectual virtue education into the classroom. Third, it would provide educators an additional, substantial justification for increasing play time in school. Finally, the proposed inquiry would be of interest to play theorists, for a reflection on the connections between play and intellectual activity will offer new insights into the nature of play.
