Epistemic Virtue from the Ancient to Early Modern Period

Workshop at The University of Sydney on Epistemic Virtue from the Ancient to Early Modern Period

9:00-5:45pm | Wednesday 20th April 2022

9:00-5:00pm | Thursday 21st April 2022

The desire to satisfy our curiosity, engage in inquiry and acquire understanding are remarkable features of a human life. An individual in pursuit of moral and epistemic (intellectual) excellence seeks the truth above all else and avoids error at all costs. Such an individual is obliged to cultivate character traits and skills that help them to achieve the goal of acquiring knowledge and avoiding errors in their judgement and reasoning. What these character traits were and how they participated in the acquisition of knowledge was a widely discussed topic in early modern philosophy. Alongside these discussions, philosophers asked whether intellectual excellence was a reasonable goal for a postlapsarian individual and prescribed practices as wide-ranging as logic, mathematics, natural history, philosophy and rhetoric for their role in cultivating epistemic virtues. This workshop brings together historians of ancient and early modern philosophy to examine the role of virtue in the acquisition of epistemic goods.

Keynote speakers:

Jacqueline Broad (Monash University) Mary Astell on Epistemic Virtue and Women’s Education: An Illusory Feminism?

Daniel Hutto (University of Wollongong) Three Ghosts of Virtue Epistemology – Classical, Early Modern, Contemporary 

Location:

Room N494
The Quadrangle (A14)
The University of Sydney

With generous support from the Sydney Intellectual History Network

This is a hybrid event | On campus and on Zoom
Limited places available for on-campus attendance. Please choose the on 'campus option' when you register if you wish to attend in person. 

For full programme and registration see: https://sophi-events.sydney.edu.au/calendar/philosophy-workshop-april-2022/