Feminist epistemology Information & Feminist epistemology Links at HealthHaven.com

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"^[1], 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..)^[2], 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) According to feminist standpoint theory, a form of polylogism, the exclusive experience of women should be considered in our conception of knowledge. This theory is similar to the Marxist form of polylogism. According to Marxism, the proletariat have knowledge that the bourgeoisie do not, while, according to the feminist standpoint theory, women have knowledge that men do not.

(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.

[edit] References

^ Anderson, Elizabeth, "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
^ 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

[edit] External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy[1] 'Positionality/Situated Knowledge', by Ian Cook (PDF)[2]

[0] Anderson, Elizabeth, "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

[1] 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

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