Heather Battaly is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, having previously taught at California State University Fullerton. She works on epistemology, ethics, and theories of virtue and vice. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Philosophical Association and Associate Editor of the Journal of Philosophical Research.
What is your work about?
I work at the intersection of epistemology and ethics, and specifically on epistemic virtues and vices—qualities that make us good and bad thinkers. These include, for instance, intellectual humility, arrogance, servility, open-mindedness, closed-mindedness, intellectual perseverance, quitting, and slacking off. I argue that while traits like open-mindedness and intellectual perseverance will often be virtues, they will sometimes be vices. And, while traits like closed-mindedness and slacking off will often be vices, they will sometimes be virtues. I examine which conditions turn these traits into virtues and vices, respectively, including the effects they produce, the contexts in which they are manifested, and the motives driving them. The key takeaway is that in the far-from-ideal context of our very real world, closed-mindedness and slacking off can be virtues.
What directions would you like to take your work in the future?
In future work, I’m hoping to pursue three main questions. First, what makes a quality a liberatory virtue? Can intellectual humility be a liberatory virtue for marginalized persons, or is intellectual pride a more likely candidate? Can closed-mindedness be a liberatory virtue for marginalized persons? Second, what do epistemic virtues and vices look like in groups, structures, and systems? Can policies make a group or structure epistemically virtuous or vicious? Are there some virtues and vices, like solidarity and polarization, that only groups, structures, and systems can have? Third, are our educational structures epistemically virtuous or vicious? Can our educational structures make progress in ameliorating epistemic vices in students and educators? Can they make progress in facilitating epistemic virtues?
Do you see any connections between your professional work and personal life?
So many! I am a card-carrying member of the ‘vice squad’ in my professional and personal life. The vice squad explores questions about moral and epistemic vices, including what makes them bad, whether we are blameworthy for them, whether groups and structures have them, and how to ameliorate them. We welcome new members!
How is your work relevant to everyday life?
If the structures in which we live influence the traits we end up with, then many of us may be at risk of having epistemic vices. Some of the vices we have, like epistemic injustice, may be widespread. Others may be more closely tied to our social identities. Here, the idea is that people who are privileged along multiple axes of their identities might be at greater risk for arrogance, while people who are marginalized might be at greater risk for servility. Either way, the ubiquity of epistemic vices would help explain fake news, conspiracy theories, polarization, and many other features of our far-from-ideal world.
What do you do at the APA?
I became the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Philosophical Association (JAPA) at the beginning of 2023. As Editor-in-Chief, I am honored to be leading our powerhouse team of nine Associate Editors. I am a true believer in JAPA’s mission to publish accessible philosophical work of the highest quality, especially work that aims to break new ground. Our team manages day-to-day business at JAPA, and with a lot of help (!), I manage papers from submission to decision, and (where applicable) production. Our team also manages JAPA’s online presence, including our new Twitter account. I am extremely grateful for the work of our Associate Editors, our referees, our authors, our grad assistant, our board, and our publisher, Cambridge University Press. Thank you for caring about JAPA, for taking the time and effort to referee papers, and for submitting papers!
What technology do you wish the human race could discover right now?
The Star Trek transporter! Sign me up—I’ll be the first person in line.
