Epistemic Authenticity

There are better and worse ways to acquire epistemic virtues and more generally to be disposed to change or maintain one's epistemic dispositions over time. This is a dimension along which one might be better or worse as an epistemic agent that, we argue, cannot be explained with reference to current normative categories in epistemology but requires recognition of a new norm or virtue—namely, “epistemic authenticity”—which is the central virtue in a novel class of virtues (or norms) of epistemic development. We sketch the contours of an account of personal authenticity and then consider the nature and value of a specifically epistemic form.