Hannah Sine

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Edidin, Aron

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis describes the ways that epistemic limitations shape disciplinary perspectives and demonstrates their effect on interdisciplinary collaboration. I begin by establishing the concept of epistemic limitations as an inevitable force in our cognitive lives. Given that our epistemic capacities will always be confined by some set of limitations, it is important—and in fact, virtuous—to acknowledge them and understand their character. In the existing literature, there are models offered for the virtuous navigation of one’s limitations, specifically dealing with those that are imposed by social standpoints. To give an account of virtue in the academic context, I gather my conceptual resources from standpoint theory and virtue epistemology. I provide a comparative analysis of standpoints and disciplinary perspectives, lending support to my modification of Medina’s virtue epistemology which allows it to be applied in contexts of academia. Once all of these components are brought together, I am enabled to put forth a new virtue for navigating disciplinary limitations—active dialectical openness. By emulating active dialectical openness, individual academics will have more opportunities for understanding their collaborators, and research groups will be positioned well to attend to the nuances of interdisciplinary research that don’t confine themselves to disciplinary boundaries. With virtues like the one I propose, scholars are more conscious of both their own limitations and others’ limitations, which makes them better equipped to collaborate with other disciplinary perspectives.

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