Engaged Epistemic Agents

Abstract

Our aim in this paper is to throw some light on the kind of normativity characteristic of human knowledge. We describe the epistemic normative domain as that field of human agency defined by knowledge understood as an achievement. The normativity of knowledge rests on the contribution of the epistemic agent to the fulfillment of certain tasks. Such contribution is epistemically significant when the agent becomes engaged in the obtaining of success. Finally, we identify some features associated with full epistemic agency (conditions of cognitive integration and epistemic autonomy) and elucidate what we mean by engagement by appealing to the idea of adopting an epistemic perspective.