Background
Code, Lorraine was born on October 19, 1937 in Calgary.
Code, Lorraine was born on October 19, 1937 in Calgary.
Queen’s University, Ontario, 1954-1958. University of Guelph, 1973 8.
Since 1987, Canada Research Fellow, Associate Professor, then full Professor, York University, Ontario.
Code is centrally concerned with developing a ‘responsibilist epistemology’ that conceives of the knower as a particular individual situated in an epistemic community rather than the abstracted knower typical of traditional theories of knowledge. Her revised conception makes the character of the knowing subject integral to epistemic justification. Although Code’s position departs from foundationalism and coherentism, she wishes not to replace standard epistemological analysis, but to broaden its scope to include questions about the intellectual virtue of the knower. The justification of beliefs thus importantly involves an assessment of the cognitive activity of the knower, the relevant considerations being practical wisdom, trust, credibility and reliability. Code argues that the construction of knowledge is grounded in ‘second-person knowing’, where interpersonal relationships, friendship, trust, feeling and subjectivity are valued alongside reason, facts and objectivity. As an alternative to the traditional epistemological paradigm of the autonomous reasoner, Code suggests an ecological model of knowing that recognizes human beings as interdependent, and enables the development of a strategy for a liberating, mutual empowerment through knowledge.