Scholarly Virtues and Vices in the 21st Century: Stories from the Field

The project team, led by Herman Paul (Leiden University), had two reasons for launching this series. First, the team was interested in 21st-century perceptions of academic virtues and vices. What do scholars experience as virtuous or vicious in their day-to-day work?

And how helpful are the seemingly old-fashioned categories of virtue and vice in this regard? Secondly, it struck the team as important to encourage debate on these issues – if only to increase awareness of how academic life shapes scholars’ mental habits. The dataset includes all ten stories solicited by the project team and published before at www.virtuesandvices.nl (the project's website, now defunct).

Some reflections on the catalog of 21st-century virtues and vices identified in these pieces can be found (in Dutch) in Herman Paul, "Pedante en vooringenomen geleerden: Een langetermijnstudie naar wetenschappelijke ondeugden," Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 136, no. 3 (2023): 239-256, doi.org/10.5117/TvG2023.3.005.PAUL