Research Publications
Welcome to our database of research publications
Virtue Epistemology for the Zetetic Turn
Carter, J. A. and Willard-Kyle, C. Forthcoming in Mind.
This article develops and argues for a virtue epistemology that includes performance-normative evaluations of interrogative attitudes (IAs) We argue that (1) IAs are competent when they manifest (rightly situated) dispositions to form IAs in sound questions reliably enough, and (2) IAs are apt when their being directed towards a sound question manifests the relevant competence.
Easy Practical Knowledge
Kearl, T. and Carter, J.A. Forthcoming in Journal of Philosophy
This paper develops a novel account of practical knowledge by connecting the epistemologies of mental rehearsal and suppositional reasoning. We argue that practical knowledge—the knowledge agents have of what they're doing as they act intentionally—is "easy" in the technical sense that manifesting one's skills provides a priori propositional justification for beliefs about one's actions. The account explains why practical knowledge typically accompanies intentional action while accommodating problematic cases involving epistemic defeat or unsafe beliefs, where agents act intentionally without knowledge. The view charts a middle path between strong Anscombian requirements and deflationary accounts that deny substantive epistemic conditions on intentional action.