Recent Work on Epistemic Value

Abstract

One of the most interesting developments in recent work in epistemology has been its focus on epistemic value. Indeed, it has been suggested—by Wayne Riggs (2006)—that contemporary epistemology is at present undergoing a “value-turn, ” such is the impact that value theory is having on epistemologi-cal debate. The aim of this survey piece is to provide an overview of this new movement. This renewed focus on epistemic value primarily grew out of one of the last big de-velopments in epistemology—that of virtue epistemology, which rose to prominence from the mid 1980s onward.1 The essential idea behind virtue epistemology, at least in