Premium
Affective States and Epistemic Immediacy
Author(s) -
Hookway Christopher
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
metaphilosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1467-9973
pISSN - 0026-1068
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9973.00261
Subject(s) - immediacy , epistemology , argument (complex analysis) , character (mathematics) , face (sociological concept) , order (exchange) , philosophy , sociology , psychology , mathematics , linguistics , chemistry , biochemistry , geometry , finance , economics
This article defends the view that an adequate response to some central epistemological problems requires us to find a role for emotions and other affective states in epistemic evaluation and also to invoke virtuous traits of character in order to explain how these affective evaluations are regulated. The argument is based on the need for some epistemic evaluations to possess a kind of immediacy, if we are not to face a worrying regress. The closing sections support the claim that epistemic evaluation depends upon appropriate character traits though a discussion of what is involved in being observant .