Harms and Wrongs

The vices of superiority and of inferiority comprise evaluations of one’s own intellectual abilities, competencies, and skills for their intellectual worth that track the effectiveness of these qualities in defending the ego or gaining social acceptance rather than appraising them for their epistemic value. There is, therefore, something inherently self-deceptive about these vices. This chapter discusses some of the ways in which vices of inferiority and superiority obstruct effective and responsible inquiry. These vices are shown to distort self-trust, obstruct self-knowledge, and to cause harms to other agents and to the epistemic community as a whole. It is also argued that these vices are causally responsible for numerous moral wrongs.