Abstract
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We examine some of the ramifications of extended cognition for virtue epistemology by
exploring the idea within extended cognition that it is possible to decentralize cognitive
agency such that cognitive agency includes socio-cultural practices. In doing so, we first
explore the (seemingly unquestioned) assumption in both virtue epistemology and
extended cognition that cognitive agency is an individualistic phenomenon. A
distributed notion of cognitive agency alters the landscape of knowledge attribution in
virtue epistemology. We conclude by offering a pragmatic notion of cognitive agency,
where the situation sets the benchmarks for whether cognitive agency is individualistic
or socio-culturally distributed.