Ernest Sosa - Virtue Epistemology: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide

VIRTUE EPISTEMOLOGY

OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHIES ONLINE RESEARCH GUIDE

Ernest Sosa

Rutgers University

2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

ISBN: 9780199809158

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHIES ONLINE RESEARCH GUIDE

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OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHIES ONLINE | Philosophy

Authority and Innovation for Scholarly Research Written by a leading international authority and bearing the Oxford University Press stamp of excellence, this article is a definitive guide to the most important resources on the topic. The article combines annotated citations, expert recommendations, and narrative pathways through the most important scholarly sources in both print and online formats. All materials recommended in this article were reviewed by the author, and the article has been organized in tiers ranging from general to highly specialized, saving valuable time by allowing researchers to easily narrow or broaden their focus among only the most trusted scholarly sources. This is just one of many articles within the subject area of Atlantic History, which is itself just one of the many subjects covered by Oxford Bibliographies Onlinea revolutionary resource designed to cut through academic information overload by guiding researchers to exactly the right book chapter, journal article, website, archive, or data set they need.

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INTRODUCTION

Virtue epistemologists deploy the resources of virtue theory to explain epistemological properties and concepts, just as virtue ethicists do for ethical properties and concepts. Virtue epistemologists claim a great many virtues for their approach, including the ability to bypass longstanding debates, answer perennial epistemological questions, solve epistemological puzzles, provide an elegant and principled account of epistemic value, and broaden epistemologys scope.

GENERAL OVERVIEWS

There are several excellent surveys of the burgeoning field of virtue epistemology. Baehr 2004 and Greco 2004 are both excellent and freely available online. Axtell 1997 is a bit dated but still useful. Battaly 2008 not only surveys the field but also advances the debate in several areas. Zagzebski 1998 highlights potential cross-fertilization with virtue ethics and social epistemology. There are also three reputable blogs that are either devoted to virtue epistemology or frequently cover it and related topics. JanusBlog covers virtue theory in epistemology and ethics. Epistemic Value covers many topics relevant to virtue epistemology. Certain Doubts is a general epistemology blog.

Axtell, Guy. Recent Work on Virtue Epistemology. American Philosophical Quarterly 34.1 (1997): 126.

Well done, though dated. Introduces the distinction between virtue reliabilism and virtue responsibilism.

Baehr, Jason. Virtue Epistemology
URL: (http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtueep/). In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. 2004.

An excellent survey of the field, freely available online. Baehr nicely distinguishes virtue reliabilism from virtue responsibilism, offers a balanced assessment of their respective merits and demerits, and suggests some ways of overcoming or transcending the divide.

Battaly, Heather. Virtue Epistemology. Philosophy Compass 3.4 (2008): 639663.

Very well written and extremely informative, this survey also advances the debate. Battaly helpfully distinguishes virtue theory from virtue anti-theory.

Certain Doubts
URL: (http://el-prod.baylor.edu/certain_doubts/).

A general epistemology weblog administered by Jonathan Kvanvig, this site often contains discussion of virtue epistemology and closely related issues.

Epistemic Value
URL: (http://epistemicvaluestirling.blogspot.com/).

Administered by Duncan Pritchard and nominally devoted to epistemic value, this blog covers topics relevant to virtue epistemology.

Greco, John. Virtue Epistemology
URL: (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-virtue/). In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2004.

Another excellent overview of the field, freely available online. It organizes the literature around Sosas initial proposal, the development of Sosas views, and reactions thereto. Greco identifies the distinguishing characteristic of virtue epistemology as a commitment to a direction of analysis , namely by explaining beliefs epistemic properties in terms of agents properties.

Janus Blog
URL: (http://janusblog.squarespace.com/).

Administered by Guy Axtell and devoted to virtue theory, including ethics and epistemology. Announcements of conferences, calls for papers, funding opportunities, and drafts of work in progress are often posted, making this online source a good way to keep up with trends in the field.

Zagzebski, Linda. Virtue Epistemology. In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Vol. 9. Edited by Edward Craig. London: Routledge, 1998.

A perspicuous survey by a leader in the field. Emphasizes parallels with ethics, the motivation for a shift to virtue epistemology, important differences among different approaches within the virtue camp, and the potentially fruitful integration of virtue epistemology with projects in social epistemology. Available online by subscription.

TEXTBOOKS

Given that the revival of virtue epistemology is so recent, it is unsurprising that relatively few textbooks cover virtue epistemology or treat epistemology from a virtue-theoretical perspective. BonJour and Sosa 2003 debates externalist virtue epistemology, among other things. Pritchard 2009 devotes two chapters to virtue epistemology. Wood 1998 introduces students to central epistemological questions through a study of virtues. Zagzebski 2009 also provides an introduction to epistemology and presents the main elements of the authors influential virtue epistemology.

BonJour, Laurence, and Ernest Sosa. Epistemic Justification: Internalism vs. Externalism, Foundations vs. Virtues. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.

BonJour and Sosa debate foundational issues surrounding epistemic justification, which inevitably leads to a discussion of many perennial epistemological problems, including knowledge, skepticism, the structure of justification, the sources of justification, and the nature of experience. Sosas contribution and BonJours critical response deal with an explicitly virtue-theoretical approach to these issues.