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IN DEFENSE OF VIRTUE-RESPONSIBILISM.
- Source :
- Logos & Episteme; 2013, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p201-216, 16p
- Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- Modest realism affirms that some of the objects of our beliefs exist independently of our beliefs. That is, there is a mind-independent world that we can epistemically access. The Cartesian skeptic claims that we can't offer any non-question-begging arguments in favor of modest realism and therefore we are not justified in believing that modest realism is true. Reliabilists argue that the skeptic assumes an evidentialist-internalist account of justification and that a proper account of justification jettisons this. Hence, our belief in modest realism can be justified. I argue in this paper that virtue-responsibilism offers an analogous response to the Cartesian skeptic. According to the virtue-responsibilist, my belief that P is an instance of knowledge iff it maps onto reality and is the result of an act of virtue. I show that the virtue- responsibilist theory excludes evidentialist-internalism, and allows for our belief in modest realism to be justified. However, it may be objected that the virtue-responsibilist can't offer non-question-begging reasons for thinking that the virtues are reliable. I argue that this objection fails and that we can know that the virtues are reliable by empirical study. Thus, virtue-responsibilism provides a satisfactory response to the Cartesian skeptic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20690533
- Volume :
- 4
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Logos & Episteme
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 88861699
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme20134227