Linda Zagzebski

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Linda Zagzebski
Born
Linda Trinkaus

1946 (age 77–78)
NationalityAmerican
Other namesLinda Trinkaus Zagzebski
SpouseKen Zagzebski[2]
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisNatural Kinds (1979)
Doctoral advisorTyler Burge[1]
InfluencesJohn Henry Newman
Academic work
DisciplinePhilosophy
Sub-discipline
School or traditionVirtue epistemology
Institutions

Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (born 1946) is an American

virtue theory
.

Education and career

Zagzebski received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, her Master of Arts degree from University of California, Berkeley, and her Doctor of Philosophy degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 1979 with a dissertation on "Natural Kinds" under the supervision of Tyler Burge.[3] She taught at Loyola Marymount University from 1979 to 1999, before joining the University of Oklahoma.[3]

She delivered the Wilde Lectures in Natural Religion at

Oxford University in the spring of 2010 on epistemic authority. She was (2015–2016) president of the American Philosophical Association Central Division, and gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in the fall of 2015 on the topic of exemplarist virtue theory. She is past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (1997–1998), and past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers (2004–2007).[4]

In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences.[5]

Philosophical work

Her research in recent years has consisted of topics such as the intersection of

Oxford University in the spring of 2010 on epistemic authority. She is (2015–2016) president of the American Philosophical Association Central Division, and gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in the fall of 2015 on the topic of exemplarist virtue theory. She is past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (1997–1998), and past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers (2004–2007).[4]

Epistemology

Zagzebski is a pioneer in the field of

virtue theory
, and in the course of this project she lays out a general analysis of virtue. In Divine Motivation Theory (2004) she deals extensively with problems in the relationship between reason, faith, and ethics.

She has done work on questions of epistemic value including the "espresso machine" thought experiment (a predecessor to the swamping problem) as a counter to reliabilism.[7]

In her book, Epistemic Authority: A Theory of Trust, Authority, and Autonomy in Belief (2012), she defends a strong sense of epistemic authority including authority in moral and religious beliefs, and argues that belief on authority is a requirement of intellectual autonomy. This book arose out of her 2010 Wilde lectures at Oxford.

In the paper titled The Inescapability of Gettier Problems,[8] Zagzebski argued that any modification of the last condition given in the Plato's definition of knowledge as justified true belief (JTB) unavoidably shall be reconducted to the unsolved case of the Gettier problem. This result is also true and valuable for any additional condition applied to the JTB.[8]

In 1996, Zagzebski defined knowledge as a "state of true belief arising out of acts of intellectual virtue", where the word 'true' can be omitted.[9][10]

According to the Aristotelian

virtue theory, she defined virtue as a "deep and enduring acquired excellence of a person, involving a characteristic motivation to produce a certain desired end and reliable success in bringing about that end."[9] Denying innatism, she believes virtue is disposition plus ability[11] and the universal human capability of achieving a good life and happiness.[12] Moral and intellectual virtues can't be separated[12] and, more particularly, knowledge is obtained from practicing intellectual virtues like responsibility, fairness, and courage.[11] True belief -in the forms of propositional knowledge and of cognitive contact with reality- are gained by a right disposition of the intellect to desire truth, and a good practice which sews the intellectual virtues on the personhood, like a new habit of the body.[13] People who are rightly motivated to know the truth are also capable to develop specific skills, build up and assess the reliability of personal and well-formed procedures, rather than doing the same for good belief-forming processes shared between peers.[14]

Selected works

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Zagzebski 2016, p. 125.
  2. ^ Zagzebski 2016, p. 124.
  3. ^ a b Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski CV ou.edu
  4. ^ a b "University of Oklahoma". Archived from the original on July 21, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  5. ^ "New Members".
  6. ^ Turri, Alfano & Greco 2019.
  7. ^ Pritchard 2007; Pritchard, Turri & Carter 2018.
  8. ^
    S2CID 170535616
    .
  9. ^
    OCLC 33899952
    . Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  10. OCLC 7006655335 – via researchgate.net. {{cite journal}}: External link in |via= (help
    )
  11. ^ a b "Lecture notes by Anthony Zhang". 2015. Archived from the original on November 27, 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  12. ^ a b zahra khazaei (2013). "Epistemic Virtue from the Viewpoints of Mulla Sadra and Zagzebski". Religious Inquiries. 2 (4): 24, 37. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  13. OCLC 928023842
    . Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  14. OCLC 988102850
    .

Works cited

Further reading

Academic offices
Preceded by
 Gifford Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews
2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the Society of Christian Philosophers
2004–2007 		Succeeded by
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