ABSTRACT
The personal qualities that have been called epistemic virtues are a motley crew, including character traits like open-mindedness and curiosity, cognitive faculties like intelligence and memory, and intellectual abilities, such as the ability to solve complex mathematical problems. This chapter locates the groundwork for a philosophically rigorous discussion of the question: is it because of the role they play in securing some epistemic good for their possessor, such as knowledge, wisdom, or understanding? It begins by giving an overview of some of the standard philosophical usages of 'epistemic virtue', and drawing some distinctions in value that provide the necessary conceptual vocabulary for adequate reflection on the question. The chapter reviews a few of the most interesting and plausible answers to this question, it provides the resources the reader needs in order to effectively consider, for him- or herself, the question "what—if anything—makes the epistemic virtues valuable?"
