Virtue epistemology and epistemic humility: national and international implications for social work

摘要

This paper adopts an original approach to social work by using virtueepistemology to analyse critically contemporary social work knowledge andpractice. There is an intellectual danger that social workers are using knowledgein an overconfident and uncritical way. It is argued that this epistemic confidenceis linked to the narrow and at times authoritarian practices of contemporarysocial work. The paper reviews the concept of virtue ethics and connects itto epistemology and the virtues needed to apply knowledge ethically. The keymessage is that epistemic humility is seen as a key epistemological virtue in socialwork and its implications for social work are considered.