Talking and Thinking with AI: How AI Chatbots Restructure Epistemic Identity and Virtue

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2025.510

Keywords:

epistemic identity, epistemic virtue, agency, Artificial Intelligence (AI), human-AI interaction, epistemic collaboration

Abstract

The incorporation of large language models or AI-driven chatbots into everyday communication and knowledge practices has significant implications for how we think and understand ourselves as epistemic agents. This paper investigates how AI chatbots reshape epistemic identity and virtue, focusing on the effects of human-AI interaction. The use of AI chatbots can ultimately impact epistemic virtues such as curiosity, intellectual humility, and open-mindedness on the one hand, and also raise questions about epistemic agency and responsibility on the other. This paper emphasizes the importance of reflective practices that maintain human autonomy, foster epistemic responsibility, and promote virtuous collaboration with AI systems. Ultimately, this paper advocates for a partial reimagining of epistemic identity and epistemic collaboration in the age of AI, seeking a balance between the advantages of AI and the significance and uniqueness of human intellectual endeavors.

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Author Biographies

Vojko Strahovnik, University of Ljubljana

Vojko Strahovnik is a full professor at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, and a scientific councilor at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana. His research interests include moral theory, normative ethics, and epistemology. He is co-editor of the book series Philosophy in Dialogue/Philosophie im Dialog published by LIT Verlag (Berlin). His books include Global Ethics: Perspectives on Global Justice (LIT, Berlin 2019), Moralna teorija. O naravi moralnosti (Aristej, Maribor 2016), Moralne sodbe, intuicija in moralna načela (IPAK, Velenje 2009), Challenging Moral Particularism (Routledge, New York 2008), and Practical Contexts (Ontos-Verlag, Frankfurt 2004).

Mateja Centa Strahovnik, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Theology

Mateja Centa Strahovnik is an assistant professor and research associate at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana. She is leading a start-up research program titled "The Intersection of Virtue, Experience, and Digital Culture: Ethical and Theological Insights." Her areas of interest are theology, ethics, cognitive theories of emotion, Gestalt pedagogy, and artificial intelligence. She is a member of the Centre for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence and Ethics of New Technologies. She is the author of the book Čustva, človekova odnosnost in doseganje dobrega življenja  (Ljubljana: Faculty of Theology, 2023; Croatian translation, Zagreb, 2024).

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Published

2025-12-18

How to Cite

Strahovnik, Vojko, and Mateja Centa Strahovnik. 2025. “Talking and Thinking With AI: How AI Chatbots Restructure Epistemic Identity and Virtue”. Poligrafi 30 (119/120):75-95. https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2025.510.

Issue

Vol. 30 No. 119/120 (2025): Human Condition in Digital Age: Ethical, Spiritual and Social Transformations and Challenges

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Articles

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Copyright (c) 2025 Vojko Strahovnik, Mateja Centa Strahovnik

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