ABSTRACT
Virtues are relatively stable propensities to think or act well. They are, as Aristotle (1962) maintains, not merely conducive of human flourishing, but in part constitutive of human flourishing. They figure in a good life for beings capable of rational and moral agency. Virtues are not mere abilities, for an agent could have an ability that she had no inclination to use. Someone who was able to reason rigorously but rarely did so, even on the occasions where rigor was called for, would not count as epistemically virtuous. Nor, according to virtue epistemologists, would a justified true belief that happened to emerge from her cavalier thinking count as knowledge. Indeed, even an out-of-character bit of rigorous thinking that produced a justified true belief would be found epistemically wanting. Although such thinking would accord with virtue, it would not manifest virtue. This parallels what virtue theorists maintain about morality. An agent who has the ability to act magnanimously but instead regularly acts selfishly is not virtuous. Even when their outcomes are morally good, his actions are not done from virtue. Here I will focus on epistemic virtues, those that bear on thinking and acting well insofar as one’s goals are cognitive. But as will emerge, some virtues that are standardly construed as moral are also epistemic.
