Corrupted: Investigating the relationship between intellectual vices and social practices

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There are increasing worries about the rise of arrogance, close-mindedness and dogmatism regarding how politicians and others conduct themselves. Philosophers call these kinds of behaviours 'intellectual vices': character traits and attitudes that hinder our abilities to know things. My thesis investigates the role our social environments play in encouraging intellectual vices. This is known as epistemic corruption. My project looks at how three social practices - victim-blaming, mansplaining, and distorted histories -encourage intellectual vices, and, conversely, how intellectual vices sustain these vicious practices. Intellectual vices play a central role in a newly-emergent philosophical discipline called vice epistemology(VE hereafter). Thus far, VE has only studied these vices individually; my project is socially oriented to improve our understanding of epistemic corruption and find ways of collectively identifying corrupting environments. My project has three parts. Part 1 constructs a working analysis of epistemic corruption by interrogating the most recent literature in VE in order to devise a theoretical framework. Part 2 looks at how lived-experiences can inform our understanding of epistemic corruption by drawing on three case studies: victim-blaming, mansplaining, and distorted histories. I chose these examples because they illustrate how different social conditions encourage intellectually vicious thinking. Second, lived-experiences can illuminate how different corrupting environments arise. Part 3 assesses how we might ameliorate epistemic corruption and corrupting practices in society. I am well-placed to undertake this research. I achieved a strong 1st class undergraduate degree, focusing particularly on feminist and moral philosophy. I achieved a distinction in my MA. I received the highest overall mark (78) in an ethics module. My MA dissertation (distinction) investigated the concept of 'mansplaining', and this research feeds directly into part 2 of my project. At Nottingham University, I am supervised by Dr Ian Kidd, Chris Woodard and Michael Hannon. Dr Kidd is a UK-leading scholar on intellectual vices, having first developed the concept of epistemic corruption here and is co-editing Vice Epistemology, a collection of research dedicated to intellectual vices. M4C funding will allow Professor Quassim Cassam from Warwick University to co-supervise me. He founded this sub-field of philosophy, writing the first monograph devoted to VE, Vices of the Mind. He has published extensively on professional/workplace vices, and his supervision will benefit the applied/ameliorative aspect of my project. Nottingham is already supporting my research. I audited a module on vices, corruption and illness and I have participated in three academic workshops on intellectual vices.