‘Ideal’ is underdetermined here, but we could give it content. I can imagine four basic families of ways to evaluate an epistemology (in addition to combinations):
Territorial: How useful is the epistemology for causing agents to consistently assert truths and deny falsehoods?
Epistemically Rational: How useful is the epistemology for causing agents to believe things in proportion to the strength of the available evidence? This may be a special case of the territorial evaluation, defined so as to exclude gerrymandered epistemologies that only help their agents by coincidence.
Instrumentally Rational: How useful is the epistemology for causing agents employing it to attain their personal goals?
Moral: How useful is the epistemology for satisfying everyone’s preferences, including the preferences of people who may not subscribe to the epistemology themselves?
‘Ideal’ is underdetermined here, but we could give it content. I can imagine four basic families of ways to evaluate an epistemology (in addition to combinations):
Territorial: How useful is the epistemology for causing agents to consistently assert truths and deny falsehoods?
Epistemically Rational: How useful is the epistemology for causing agents to believe things in proportion to the strength of the available evidence? This may be a special case of the territorial evaluation, defined so as to exclude gerrymandered epistemologies that only help their agents by coincidence.
Instrumentally Rational: How useful is the epistemology for causing agents employing it to attain their personal goals?
Moral: How useful is the epistemology for satisfying everyone’s preferences, including the preferences of people who may not subscribe to the epistemology themselves?