Does philosophy makes one less prone to corruption?

[Calypze]

There is a trait called "Philosophically inclined", with a description that this man has studied "the knotty problems of existence itself" or something like that. IIRC, the trait makes the character less prone to accept bribes. I don't know if this trait exists in RTW Vanilla, or if it was added by the EB team.

I wonder if this is a true cause-and-effect relationship. I.e, is it true that a student of philosophy - or a full-fledged philosopher, wherever you draw the line - becomes less prone to corruption?

[iamphet]

It seems you are right. From export_descr_character_traits.txt

Trait PhilosophySkill
    Characters family
    ExcludeCultures barbarian
    NoGoingBackLevel 4
    AntiTraits Ignorance

    Level Philosophically_Inclined
        Description Philosophically_Inclined_desc
        EffectsDescription Philosophically_Inclined_effects_desc
        Threshold  2

        Effect Management  1
        Effect BribeResistance  2

    Level Philosopher
        Description Philosopher_desc
        EffectsDescription Philosopher_effects_desc
        Threshold  4

        Effect Management  2
        Effect BribeResistance  5

    Level Abstruse_Philosopher
        Description Abstruse_Philosopher_desc
        EffectsDescription Abstruse_Philosopher_effects_desc
        Threshold  8

        Effect Management  3
        Effect BribeResistance  10

[machinor]

I think one has to take into consideration the ancient colloquial understanding of philosophy and its "use". If you take a look at ancient philosophical schools like Stoicism, Epicurism or Academic Philosophy you will notice that the practice of philosophy had very much to do with forming one's character; the goal being to become "of good character", if you will, regarding whatever the respective philosphical school would consider to be good a character, i.e. what it considered to be appropriate values. So "philosophy" back then had very much to do with moral education.
The term "ethic" is derived from the Greek word "ethos" which (among others) had the meaning of "character" or "personality". So the basic assumption was that someone with a good charakter (either by nature or by education) would try to live a good life in the sense of folowing certain moral values and thus be less corrupt.

Today's (correct academic) understanding of the term "philosophy" is that of a scientific field or discipline. Although the colloquial understanding of "philosophy of life" prevails, being a student (or professor/master/PhD for that matter) of philosophy is not considered to necessarily be of any indication for the person's "good character".


So, to answer your question: I, being a student of philosophy, do not think that philosophy has something to do with someone's moral values, although I like to think that it may have benificial side effects if it's pursued in earnest.