Corrupted: Investigating the relationship between intellectual vices and social practices

越来越多的人担心，在政客和其他人的行为举止上，傲慢、封闭和教条主义的抬头。哲学家们把这类行为称为“智力上的恶习”：阻碍我们认识事物能力的性格特征和态度。我的论文调查了我们的社会环境在鼓励智力恶习方面所起的作用。这就是所谓的认知腐败。我的项目着眼于三种社会习俗——指责受害者、男人说教和扭曲的历史——如何鼓励智力上的罪恶，反过来，智力上的罪恶如何维持这些邪恶的行为。智力上的罪恶在一门新兴的哲学学科——罪恶认识论（以下简称“罪恶认识论”）中扮演着核心角色。到目前为止，VE只单独研究了这些恶习；我的项目是面向社会的，旨在提高我们对认知腐败的理解，并找到集体识别腐败环境的方法。我的项目有三个部分。第1部分通过询问VE的最新文献来构建对认知腐败的有效分析，以设计一个理论框架。第2部分通过三个案例研究：受害者指责、男人说教和扭曲的历史，探讨了生活经验如何帮助我们理解认知腐败。我之所以选择这些例子，是因为它们说明了不同的社会条件是如何鼓励智力上的恶性思维的。其次，亲身经历可以说明不同的腐败环境是如何产生的。第三部分评估了我们如何改善社会中的认知腐败和腐败行为。我很适合从事这项研究。我获得了一流的本科学位，主修女权主义和道德哲学。我取得了优异的文学硕士学位。我在道德模块中获得了最高分（78分）。我的硕士论文（获奖）调查了“男人说教”的概念，这项研究直接成为我项目的第二部分。在诺丁汉大学，我的导师是伊恩·基德博士、克里斯·伍达德和迈克尔·汉农。基德博士是英国研究智力罪恶的顶尖学者，他在这里首次提出了认知腐败的概念，并与人合编了《副认识论》（Vice Epistemology），这是一本专门研究智力罪恶的研究文集。M4C基金将允许华威大学的夸西姆·卡萨姆教授共同指导我。他创立了这一哲学分支，并撰写了第一部专门研究VE的专著《心灵的罪恶》。他发表了大量关于专业/工作场所恶习的文章，他的指导将有利于我项目的应用/改进方面。诺丁汉已经在支持我的研究。我旁听了一个关于罪恶、腐败和疾病的模块，还参加了三次关于智力罪恶的学术研讨会。

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.