Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 75, 2018

Theories of Knowledge and Epistemology

Virtuously Avoiding the Truth Goal

Epistemic value monists hold the view that virtuous agents only have one goal qua intellectual being, the truth goal: to acquire true beliefs and avoiding false ones. Monism has recently come under attack by those who think there is a plurality of intellectual values and goals. I welcome value pluralism in part because it opens up the possibility of identifying values and goals that cannot otherwise be identified in real-world virtuous agents. I go even further than some pluralists by arguing that, not only are there more values than acquiring true beliefs and avoiding false ones, but in addition, agents sometimes virtuously seek false beliefs and avoid true ones.