Virtue epistemology is a contemporary philosophical approach to epistemology that stresses the importance of intellectual (epistemic) virtues. It combines the central tenets of virtue theory (also called “virtue ethics”) with classical epistemological approaches.
Intellectual virtue has been a subject of philosophy since the works of Plato and Aristotle, but virtue epistemology is a development in the contemporary analytic tradition. It is characterized by efforts to solve problems of special concern to modern epistemology, such as justification and reliabilism, by directing attention on the knower as agent in a manner similar to virtue ethics.
Read more about Virtue Epistemology: The Raft and The Pyramid, Theory, Varieties of Virtue Epistemology, Potential Advantages of Virtue Epistemology
Famous quotes containing the word virtue:
“Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a “taxing- machine;” to the contented, a “machine for securing property.” Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)