Epistemic Autonomy

This is the first book dedicated to the topic of epistemic autonomy. It features original essays from leading scholars that promise to significantly shape future debates in this emerging area of epistemology. While the nature of and value of autonomy has long been discussed in ethics and social and political philosophy, it remains an underexplored area of epistemology. The essays in this collection take up several interesting questions and approaches related to epistemic autonomy. Topics include the nature of epistemic autonomy, whether epistemic paternalism can be justified, autonomy as an epistemic value and/or vice, and the relation of epistemic autonomy to social epistemology and epistemic injustice. Epistemic Autonomy will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in epistemology, ethics, and social and political philosophy.

Introduction: Puzzles Concerning Epistemic Autonomy Jonathan Matheson and Kirk Lougheed Part I: The Nature of Epistemic Autonomy 1. Epistemic Autonomy and Externalism J. Adam Carter 2. Autonomy, Reflection, and Education Shane Ryan 3. The Realm of Epistemic Ends Catherine Elgin 4. Professional Philosophy Has an Epistemic Autonomy Problem Maura Priest Part II: Epistemic Autonomy and Paternalism 5. Norms of Inquiry, Student-Led Learning, and Epistemic Paternalism Robert Mark Simpson 6. Persuasion and Intellectual Autonomy Robin McKenna 7. What’s Epistemic about Epistemic Paternalism? Liz Jackson Part III: Epistemic Autonomy and Epistemic Virtue & Value 8. Intellectual Autonomy and Intellectual Interdependence Heather Battaly 9. The Virtue of Epistemic Autonomy Jonathan Matheson 10. Understanding and the Value of Intellectual Autonomy Jesús Vega-Encabo 11. Epistemic Myopia Chris Dragos 12. Intellectual Autonomy and its Vices Alessandra Tanesini 13. Gaslighting, Humility, and the Manipulation of Autonomy Javier González de Prado Part IV: Epistemic Autonomy & Social Epistemology 14. Epistemic Autonomy for Social Epistemologists: The Case of Moral Inheritance Sarah McGrath 15. Epistemic Autonomy and the Right to be Confident Sanford Goldberg 16. We Owe it to Others to Think for Ourselves Finnur Dellsén 17. Epistemic Self-Governance and Trusting the Word of Others: Is There a Conflict? Elizabeth Fricker

Jonathan Matheson is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Florida. He is the author of The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement and co-editor (with Rico Vitz) of The Ethics of Belief: Individual and Social. Kirk Lougheed is a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at the University of Pretoria with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has published over 25 articles in such places as Philosophia, Ratio, and Synthese. He is the author of The Epistemic Benefits of Disagreement (2020), The Axiological Status of Theism and Other Worldviews (2020), and the editor of Four Views on the Axiology of Theism: What Difference Does God Make? (2020).