Description
Book SynopsisThe 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 c
Trade ReviewReview 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 *
It makes both a necessary read for the specialist and a suitable text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. Baehrs gift for exposition allows one easily to grasp the state of various questions; his arguments, while always cogent, seldom aim to be knockdown, leaving much for the next generation of virtue epistemologists to ponder. * James A. Montmarquet, Ethics *
Table of Contents1. 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
