Veritatis Gaudium: Multidisciplinary Journal of Postgraduate Studies

This study critically examines intellectual character and epistemic vice in contemporary Nigeria through Mark Alfano’s situationist critique of responsibilist virtue epistemology. The study addresses the philosophical problem of whether stable intellectual character can adequately explain epistemic behaviour when individuals are significantly influenced by social and situational conditions. It adopts analytic and critical methods, drawing on philosophical literature and relevant scholarly studies to examine intellectual virtue, epistemic vice, epistemic responsibility, and epistemic situationism. The study argues that Alfano’s framework provides a valuable account of the situational factors that influence epistemic conduct, but its explanatory capacity is limited when applied to the complex cultural, institutional, political, and digital realities of contemporary Nigeria. Misinformation, political manipulation, corruption, academic dishonesty, prejudice, and irresponsible digital communication demonstrate that epistemic vices are produced and reinforced through interactions between individual dispositions and social environments. The study therefore contends that intellectual character should not be understood solely as an individual possession but as a disposition shaped and exercised within particular social contexts. It concludes that developing an epistemically virtuous Nigerian society requires both the cultivation of individual intellectual virtues and institutional conditions that promote epistemic responsibility, critical inquiry, intellectual humility, and commitment to truth.

Open Full Text (PDF)