Mark Alfano and Abrol Fairweather

Mark Alfano (left) and Abrol Fairweather (right) on virtue epistemology.

A long line of virtue ethicists believe that we need to understand the moral virtues—courage, benevolence, temperance, etc.—in order to address core questions in moral philosophy. Lately, there has been a surge of interest in virtue epistmeology, which holds that core questions in epistemology should be addressed in terms of epistemic virtues. In this conversation, Alfano and Fairweather discuss the advantages and challenges of virtue epistemology, with a special focus on issues arising from results in empirical psychology.

Related works

by Alfano:

“Extending the Situationist Challenge to Responsibilist Virtue Epistemology” (forthcoming)

“Explaining Away Intuitions About Traits: Why Virtue Ethics Seems Plausible (Even if it Isn’t)” (2010)

by Fairweather:

“Duhem-Quine Virtue Epistemology” (forthcoming)

“The Epistemic Value of Good Sense” (forthcoming)

“Epistemic Motivation” in Fairweather and Zagzebski (eds.), Virtue Epistemology: Essays in Epistemic Virtue and Responsibility (2001)

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