Feminist epistemology

Feminist epistemology

Feminist epistemology is concerned with the way "in which gender does and ought to influence our conceptions of knowledge, the knowing subject, and practices of inquiry and justification" [Anderson, Elizabeth, "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)] , and comes under the umbrella of social epistemology - a broad set of approaches to the study of knowledge.

Anderson argues that central to feminist epistemology is the concept of the situated knower and hence, situated knowledge. Donna Haraway (1998) makes the point that most knowledge, in particular academic knowledge is always situated and "produced by positioned actors working in/between all kinds of locations, working up/on/through all kinds of research relation(ships)" (Cook, "et al".) [Ian Cook, 'Positionality/Situated Knowledge' for David Sibley "et al" (eds)"Critical Concepts in Cultural Geography". London, IB: Taurus http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/downloads/gesdraftpapers/iancook-situatedknowledge.pdf] , and thus what is known and the ways in which this knowledge can be known is subject to the positionally - the situation and perspective - of the knower.

Feminist epistemology consists of the following:

(1) Feminist empiricism: obtaining knowledge on the experiences of women. They are asked questions on issues such as gender inequality.

(2) Feminist standpoint theory: knowledge should be looked at from the standpoint of women; their experiences are taken into account. This theory is linked to Marxist ideology as it looks at those who are oppressed in society. With Marxism, those being oppressed (the working-class)have knowledge that the ruling-class do not. This is related to the standpoint theory as women have knowledge that the men are unaware of.

(3) Postmodern feminism: take a look at the causes of inequalities and differences between men and women. Criticise the structure of society and postmodern feminists say terms such as 'oppressed' actually encourage patriarchy even more.

Isma M

References

External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-epistemology/] 'Positionality/Situated Knowledge', by Ian Cook (PDF) [http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/downloads/gesdraftpapers/iancook-situatedknowledge.pdf]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Epistemology — (from Greek επιστήμη episteme , knowledge + λόγος , logos ) or theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. [Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 3, 1967, Macmillan, Inc.] The term… …   Wikipedia

  • Feminist theory — is the extension of feminism into theoretical, or philosophical, ground. It encompasses work done in a broad variety of disciplines, prominently including the approaches to women s roles and lives and feminist politics in anthropology and… …   Wikipedia

  • Feminist economics — broadly refers to a developing branch of economics that applies feminist lenses to economics. Research under this heading is often interdisciplinary or heterodox. It encompasses debates about the relationship between feminism and economics on… …   Wikipedia

  • Feminist philosophy (french) — French feminist philosophy De Beauvoir, Kristeva, Irigaray, Le Doeuff, Cixous Alison Ainley INTRODUCTION Although women have been active philosophers for many centuries,1 the development of a specifically feminist viewpoint in the context of… …   History of philosophy

  • feminist philosophy — Loosely related set of approaches in various fields of philosophy that emphasizes the role of gender in the formation of traditional philosophical problems and concepts and the ways in which traditional philosophy reflects and perpetuates bias… …   Universalium

  • Naturalized epistemology — is a collection of philosophic views concerned with the theory of knowledge that emphasize the role of natural scientific methods. This shared emphasis on scientific methods of studying knowledge shifts focus to the empirical processes of… …   Wikipedia

  • Outline of epistemology — See also: Index of epistemology articles The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to epistemology: Epistemology or theory of knowledge – branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge.[1] The… …   Wikipedia

  • methodology, feminist — There have been a number of proposals that feminist social science or social science in general, or even science in general requires a new methodology . Some of these have been concerned with research design , some with epistemology , and some… …   Dictionary of sociology

  • ФЕМИНИСТСКАЯ ЭПИСТЕМОЛОГИЯ (и ФЕМИНИСТСКАЯ МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ) — (feminist epistemology (and feminist methodology)) феминистские теории познания, утверждающие, что традиционная эпистемология преуменьшала значение главных в женском опыте и в женской жизни областей знания. Согласно Коуорд и Эллис (1977),… …   Большой толковый социологический словарь

  • List of philosophy topics (D-H) — DDaDai Zhen Pierre d Ailly Jean Le Rond d Alembert John Damascene Damascius John of Damascus Peter Damian Danish philosophy Dante Alighieri Arthur Danto Arthur C. Danto Arthur Coleman Danto dao Daodejing Daoism Daoist philosophy Charles Darwin… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”