Linda Zagzebski

Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (born 1946) is an American philosopher. She is the George Lynn Cross Research Professor, as well as Kingfisher College Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics, at the University of Oklahoma. She writes in the areas of epistemology, philosophy of religion, and virtue theory. She was (2015–2016) president of the American Philosophical Association Central Division, and gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in the fall of 2015. She is past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers.[3] She was a 2011–2012 Guggenheim Fellow.[4]

Linda Zagzebski
Born	Linda Trinkaus 1946 (age 74–75)
Nationality	American
Other names	Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski
Spouse(s)	Ken Zagzebski[1]
Academic background
Alma mater	Stanford University University of California, Berkeley University of California, Los Angeles
Thesis	Natural Kinds (1979)
Doctoral advisor	Tyler Burge[2]
Influences	John Henry Newman
Academic work
Discipline	Philosophy
Sub-discipline	Epistemology ethics philosophy of religion
School or tradition	Virtue epistemology
Institutions	Loyola Marymount University University of Oklahoma

Life and career

Born in 1946,[5] Zagzebski received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, her Master of Arts degree from University of California, Berkeley, and her Doctor of Philosophy degree from University of California, Los Angeles[2] (dissertation: Natural Kinds).

Her research in recent years has consisted of topics such as the intersection of ethics and epistemology, religious epistemology, religious ethics, virtue theory, and the varieties of fatalism. She delivered the Wilde Lectures in Natural Religion at Oxford University in the spring of 2010 on epistemic authority. She is (2015–2016) president of the American Philosophical Association Central Division, and gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in the fall of 2015 on the topic of exemplarist virtue theory. She is past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (1997–1998), and past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers (2004–2007).[6]

Epistemology

Zagzebski is a pioneer in the field of virtue epistemology.[7] In Virtues of the Mind (1996), she sets out to solve certain problems in modern epistemology by developing an Aristotelian version of virtue theory, and in the course of this project she lays out a general analysis of virtue. In Divine Motivation Theory (2004) she deals extensively with problems in the relationship between reason, faith, and ethics.

She has done work on questions of epistemic value including the "espresso machine" thought experiment (a predecessor to the swamping problem) as a counter to reliabilism.[8]

In her book, Epistemic Authority: A Theory of Trust, Authority, and Autonomy in Belief (2012), she defends a strong sense of epistemic authority including authority in moral and religious beliefs, and argues that belief on authority is a requirement of intellectual autonomy. This book arose out of her 2010 Wilde lectures at Oxford.

Selected works

• The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge. New York: Oxford University Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-19-510763-0.
• Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 1996. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139174763. ISBN 978-0-521-57826-4.
• Virtue Epistemology: Essays on Epistemic Virtue and Responsibility. Edited with Fairweather, Abrol. New York: Oxford University Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-19-514077-4.
• Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology. Edited with DePaul, Michael. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2003. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252732.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-925273-2.
• Divine Motivation Theory. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 2004. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511606823. ISBN 978-0-521-53576-2.
• Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. 2007. ISBN 978-1-4051-1872-9.
• On Epistemology. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0-534-25234-2.
• Epistemic Authority: A Theory of Trust, Authority, and Autonomy in Belief. New York: Oxford University Press. 2012. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199936472.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-993647-2.
• Exemplarist Moral Theory. New York: Oxford University Press. 2017. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190655846.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-065584-6.

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References

Footnotes

1. Zagzebski 2016, p. 124.
2. Zagzebski 2016, p. 125.
3. "Philosophy".
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 16, 2011. Retrieved May 12, 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. Zagzebski 2016, p. 119.
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 21, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. Turri, Alfano & Greco 2019.
8. Pritchard 2007; Pritchard, Turri & Carter 2018.

Works cited

• Pritchard, Duncan (2007). "Recent Work on Epistemic Value". American Philosophical Quarterly. 44 (2): 85–110. ISSN 2152-1123. JSTOR 20464361.
• Pritchard, Duncan; Turri, John; Carter, J. Adam (2018). "The Value of Knowledge". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (spring 2018 ed.). Stanford, California: Stanford University. ISSN 1095-5054. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
• Turri, John; Alfano, Mark; Greco, John (2019). "Virtue Epistemology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (fall 2019 ed.). Stanford, California: Stanford University. ISSN 1095-5054. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
• Zagzebski, Linda (2016). "The Joys and Sorrows of a Philosophical Life". Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association. 90: 114–128. ISSN 2325-9248. JSTOR 26622941. Retrieved July 28, 2020.

Further reading

• Zagzebski, Linda (2001). "Religious Diversity and Social Responsibility". Logos. 4 (1): 135–155. doi:10.1353/log.2001.0012. ISSN 1533-791X. S2CID 170404567.