The epistemic virtues, as identified by virtue epistemologists, reflect their contention that belief is an ethical process, and thus susceptible to the intellectual

virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is morality, moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is Value (ethics), valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that sh ...

vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...

of one's own life and personal experiences. Some epistemic virtues have been identified by W. Jay Wood, based on research into the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

tradition. Virtues are generally defined by good moral character and epistemic virtues are otherwise defined as intellectual virtues.

Foundations of Epistemology

The foundation for

epistemic virtues The epistemic virtues, as identified by virtue epistemologists, reflect their contention that belief is an ethical process, and thus susceptible to the intellectual virtue or vice of one's own life and personal experiences. Some epistemic virtues h ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...

, the theory of what we know to be true according to our own perception in relation to reality.

Philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

s are interested in how the

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

relates to reality. They focus on questions such as do we know things, how do we know things and when do we know these things. Their main concern is the overall nature of knowledge.

Epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...

battles with

skepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

by trying to come up with a base on which all

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distin ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

can be built up on. Skepticism promotes an impasse to this because we must doubt what we know in order to know if what we know is indeed true.

Epistemic Virtues and Well-Being

Epistemic virtue is a system of systems of dispositions. An epistemically virtuous person is someone who is determined to find out what's true without having to question their own personal truth or be swayed by

self-interest Self-interest generally refers to a focus on the needs or desires (''interests'') of one's self. Most times, actions that display self-interest are often performed without conscious knowing. A number of philosophical, psychological, and econo ...

or feelings. There is an apparent tension between these two concepts because there are numerous times where the truth can make a person worse off. Without a doubt we all know of a moment where remaining ignorant was the better option as opposed to knowing the truth. An example of this would be a person being better off not knowing that their significant other is being unfaithful, some people would prefer to live in the lie because it would affect them less. The epistemically virtuous person is more concerned with searching for the truth without being swayed by self-interest or other outside elements. A happy person would rather let some truths go unnoticed in the hopes of deceiving themselves for the sake of maintaining relationships and to repress any other feelings that may cause them to feel bad.

Virtues vs Epistemic Virtues

Virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is morality, moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is Value (ethics), valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that sh ...

s and epistemic virtues are two very distinct things that can be difficult to tell apart if not familiar with

and what it is first. Virtue is defined as a trait or quality that is seen to be morally right and is therefore considered to be a virtues trait. Now an epistemic virtue is the idea that our beliefs go through an ethical process and because of this they are influenced by our

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to tak ...

s, personal virtues and just our own personal experiences. Virtues are more about the

behavior Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as we ...

and moral character and doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. While on the other hand epistemic virtues are more focused on our thoughts and our own person beliefs.

Overview

Being an epistemically virtuous person is often equated with being a critical thinker and focuses on the human agent and the kind of practices that make it possible to arrive at the best accessible approximation of the truth. Epistemic virtues include

conscientiousness Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to ...

Greco, John. 2011. . as well as the following: * attentiveness * benevolence (principle of charity) *

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed lit ...

curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human ...

(see below) *

discernment Discernment is the ability to obtain sharp perceptions or to judge well (or the activity of so doing). In the case of judgement, discernment can be psychological, moral or aesthetic in nature. Discernment has also been defined in the contexts; sc ...

honesty Honesty or truthfulness is a facet of moral character that connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, straightforwardness, including straightforwardness of conduct, along with the absence of lying, cheating, th ...

humility Humility is the quality of being humble. Dictionary definitions accentuate humility as a low self-regard and sense of unworthiness. In a religious context humility can mean a recognition of self in relation to a deity (i.e. God), and subsequent ...

objectivity Objectivity can refer to: * Objectivity (philosophy), the property of being independent from perception ** Objectivity (science), the goal of eliminating personal biases in the practice of science ** Journalistic objectivity, encompassing fai ...

parsimony Parsimony refers to the quality of economy or frugality in the use of resources. Parsimony may also refer to * The Law of Parsimony, or Occam's razor, a problem-solving principle ** Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics), an optimality criterion in p ...

* studiousness *

understanding Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object ...

* warranty *

wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledg ...

These can be contrasted to the ''epistemic vices'' such as: * closed-mindedness * curiosity (see below) *

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

tism * epistemic blindness *

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

gullibility Gullibility is a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into an ill-advised course of action. It is closely related to credulity, which is the tendency to believe unlikely propositions that are unsupp ...

* intellectual dishonesty * obtuseness * self-deception *

superficiality What social psychologists call "the principle of superficiality versus depth" has pervaded Western culture since at least the time of Plato. Historical sketch Socrates sought to convince his debaters to turn from the superficiality of a worldview ...

of thought *

superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs ...

* willful naïveté *

wishful thinking Wishful thinking is the formation of beliefs based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality. It is a product of resolving conflicts between belief and desire. Methodologies to examine wishful thin ...

Note that, in this context, ''curiosity'' bears the medieval connotation of attraction to unwholesome things, in contrast to the positive ''studious'' (or perhaps ''inquisitive'').

Notes

References

* W. Jay Wood, Epistemology: Becoming Intellectually Virtuous (InterVarsity Press, 1998) * Robert C. Roberts and W. Jay Wood, Intellectual Virtues: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2007) * Linda Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind (Cambridge University Press, 1996) * Michael DePaul and Linda Zagzebski, eds. Intellectual Virtue (Oxford University Press, 2003) * Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity (Zone Books, 2007) *Baril, Anne. "The Role of Epistemic Virtue in the Realization of Basic Goods." ''Episteme: A Journal of Individual and Social Epistemology'', vol. 13, no. 4, Jan. 2016, pp. 379–395. ''EBSCOhost'', search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pif&AN=PHL2346569&site=ehost-live

External links

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Epistemic_akrasia
_(irrationality)_as_a_deficit_of_virtue.html" ;"title="akrasia">Epistemic akrasia
(irrationality) as a deficit of virtue">akrasia">Epistemic akrasia
(irrationality) as a deficit of virtueby Christopher Hookway
Is Inclusion an Epistemic Virtue?
by Harvey Siegel

by Jonathan L. Kvanvig {{Authority control Virtue Concepts in epistemology