Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge

Almost all theories of knowledge and justified belief employ moral concepts and forms of argument borrowed from moral theories, but none of them pay attention to the current renaissance in virtue ethics. This remarkable book is the first attempt to establish a theory of knowledge based on the model of virtue theory in ethics. The book develops the concept of an intellectual virtue, and then shows how the concept can be used to give an account of the major concepts in epistemology, including the concept of knowledge. This highly original work of philosophy for professionals will also provide students with an excellent introduction to epistemology, virtue theory, and the relationship between ethics and epistemology.

• First book to show real connections between ethics and epistemology • Zagzebski is quite well-known in the profession. She has published two books, the better-known being: The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge (Oxford, 1991)

Part I. The Methodology of Epistemology: 1. Using moral theory in epistemology; 2. Difficulties in contemporary epistemology; 3. More reasons to try a virtue approach: the relations between believing and feeling; 4. An objection to modeling evaluation in epistemology on ethics: the dispute over the voluntariness of belief; 5. Conclusion to Part 1: why center epistemology on the virtues; Part II. A Theory of Virtue and Vice: 1. Types of virtue theories; 2. The nature of a virtue; 3. Intellectual and moral virtue; 4. The two components of intellectual virtue; 5. The importance of phronesis; 6. The definition of deontic concepts; 7. Conclusion to Part 2: the scope of the moral; Part III. The Nature of Knowledge: 1. Knowledge and the ethics of belief; 2. Defining knowledge; 3. Gettier problems; 4. Reliabilism; 5. Plantinga’s theory of proper function; 6. Harmonizing internal and external aspects of knowing; 7. Conclusion to Part 3: ethicss, epistemology, and psychology; Bibliography; Index.