‘Epistemic virtues’

 I remember, from student days, lectures about logical rigor. I don’t remember hearing the term epistemic virtues. Here’s Julian Baggini’s explanation:

One of the main things one should do is cultivate epistemic virtues. Forget critical thinking skills — you need epistemic virtues. You need to be ruthlessly honest with yourself about your own reasons and motivations for why you might believe what you believe. You’ve got to really pay close attention to whatever evidence you’re looking at and not just accept it at face value. So I think people need to focus more on the virtues of a good thinker rather than on any particular critical thinking skills or taking any kind of course.

 

It seems that we are living in the golden age for carnival-barking hucksters. The current occupant of the White House is a preposterous liar. People in charge of public health are scientifically illiterate. Scam artists are so busy they must resort to automated call systems.

But the marketplace of ideas has always been full of awful stuff. As Plato observed, some arguments, like some men, are pretenders. 

I like the notion that the effort to think clearly is an ethical matter.

• Samuel McKee, “Cultivating epistemic virtue; interview with Julian Baggini”; The Free Thinker, Feb. 12, 2025. It’s here: 

https://freethinker.co.uk/2025/05/cultivating-epistemic-virtue-interview-with-julian-baggini/