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Vice epistemology
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Cassam, Quassim (2016) Vice epistemology. The Monist, 99 (2). pp. 159-180. doi:10.1093/monist/onv034 ISSN 0026-9662.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/monist/onv034
Abstract
Vice epistemology is the philosophical study of the nature, identity, and epistemological significance of intellectual vices. Such vices include gullibility, dogmatism, prejudice, closed-mindedness, and negligence. These are intellectual character vices, that is, intellectual vices that are also character traits. I ask how the notion of an intellectual character vice should be understood, whether such vices exist, and how they might be epistemologically significant. The proposal is that intellectual character vices are intellectual character traits that impede effective and responsible inquiry. I argue that situationist critiques of virtue epistemology pose no significant threat to this proposal. Studies by social psychologists of belief in conspiracy theories suggest that it is sometimes appropriate to explain questionable beliefs by reference to intellectual character vices. Neither ‘regulative’ nor ‘analytic’ epistemology has any good reason to question the epistemological significance of such vices.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Knowledge, Theory of, Dogmatism, Prejudices, Negligence | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Monist | ||||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||
ISSN: | 0026-9662 | ||||||
Official Date: | 1 April 2016 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 99 | ||||||
Number: | 2 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 159-180 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1093/monist/onv034 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 6 October 2016 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 6 October 2016 | ||||||
Funder: | Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain) (AHRC) | ||||||
Grant number: | (AH/M011089/1) |
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