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Print Price: $39.95

Format:
Paperback
248 pp.
156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199659296

Publication date:
November 2012

Imprint: OUP UK

The Inquiring Mind

On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology

Jason Baehr

The Inquiring Mind is a new contribution to "responsibilist" or character-based virtue-epistemology - an approach to epistemology in which intellectual character traits like open-mindedness, fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, and intellectual courage, rigor, and generosity are given a central and fundamental role. Jason Baehr provides an accessible introduction to virtue epistemology and intellectual virtues, and establishes two main goals. The first is to shed light on the nature and structure of intellectual virtues and their role in the cognitive economy. To this end, he examines the difference between intellectual virtues and intellectual faculties, talents, temperaments, and skills, develops a "personal worth" account of the nature of an intellectual virtue, contrasts this account with several others, and provides analyses of two individual virtues: namely, open-mindedness and intellectual courage.

The second main goal is to account for the role that reflection on intellectual character virtues should play within epistemology at large. Here Baehr defends three main claims. The first is that the concept of intellectual virtue does not merit a central or fundamental role within traditional epistemology. The second is that it does, nonetheless, merit a secondary or background role in this context. The third is that intellectual character virtues and their role in intellectual life can form the basis of an approach to epistemology that is distinct from but complementary to traditional epistemology. Finally, Baehr examines the relation between intellectual and moral virtues.

Readership : Scholars and students of epistemology, and moral philosophy.

Reviews

Review from previous edition: "This is an excellent book. Baehr proposes an interesting and original account of the proper goals of a virtue theory for epistemology and makes substantive progress toward developing a theory of his own. The quality of argument is very high and Baehr's writing is elegant and clear."

--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

1. Introduction
2. Intellectual Virtues
3. Knowledge and Intellectual Virtue
4. Virtue and Character in Reliabilism
5. Evidentialism, Vice, and Virtue
6. A Personal Worth Conception of Intellectual Virtue
7. The Personal Worth Conception and Its Rivals
8. Open-Mindedness
9. Intellectual Courage
10. The Status and Future of Character-Based Virtue Epistemology
Appendix: On the Distinction between Intellectual and Moral Virtues
References
Index

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Jason Baehr is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. He works in the areas of epistemology and virtue theory. He lives with his wife and three children in Long Beach, CA.

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Special Features

Brand-new research on a hot topic.
Addresses key questions on the role of intellectual virtue in an analysis of knowledge.
Offers the most extensive critique of a virtue-based account of knowledge to date.
Establishes the theoretical agenda in virtue epistemology for years to come.