ERIC Number: EJ1009733
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-May-16
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0309-8249
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Detecting Epistemic Vice in Higher Education Policy: Epistemic Insensibility in the Seven Solutions and the REF
Battaly, Heather
Journal of Philosophy of Education, v47 n2 p263-280 May 2013
This article argues that the Seven Solutions in the US, and the Research Excellence Framework in the UK, manifest the vice of epistemic insensibility. Section I provides an overview of Aristotle's analysis of moral vice in people. Section II applies Aristotle's analysis to epistemic vice, developing an account of epistemic insensibility. In so doing, it contributes a new epistemic vice to the field of virtue epistemology. Section III argues that the (US) Seven Breakthrough Solutions and, to a lesser extent, the (UK) Research Excellence Framework manifest two key features of the vice of epistemic insensibility. First, they promote a failure to desire, consume, and enjoy some knowledge that it is appropriate to desire, consume, and enjoy. Second, they do so because they wrongly assume that such knowledge is not epistemically good. The Solutions wrongly assume that any research that lacks "impact", in the form of funding, thereby lacks epistemic value. The REF wrongly assumes of otherwise comparable bodies of research, that the research that lacks "impact" has less epistemic value. (Contains 1 table and 30 notes.)
Descriptors: Higher Education, Educational Policy, Epistemology, Comparative Education, Foreign Countries, Policy Analysis, Intellectual History, Educational Research, Moral Values, Research Problems, Educational Philosophy, Change Strategies, Educational Objectives, Educational Practices, Beliefs
Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida; Texas; United Kingdom; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A