Moral and intellectual exemplarism

The study examines the theory of moral exemplarism by L. Zagzebski. Moral exemplarism is a new doctrine that purports to define moral concepts empirically by direct ostension to certain people who are moral exemplars. The methodological basis of exemplarism is the Kripke-Putnam theory of reference. The study proves that exemplarism can be extended into the field of virtue epistemology. According to virtue epistemology, knowledge is a true belief formed by intellectual virtues. The latter can also be determined by direct reference to relevant exemplars. The merits and demerits of exemplarism are shown. The simplicity is an advantage of this theory. The disadvantage is that in order to define such abstract notions as moral and intellectual virtues, ostension is applied as an additional approach.