Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science - Research Paper Example

Introduction Feminist epistemology has been defined as an approach to knowledge in a women's perspective (Yi Kang, 2009, p.74). The need for a feminist epistemology arose in the backdrop of many oppressive tendencies perceived in the mainstream knowledge paradigm (Yi Kang, 2009, p.74). These include, 1) women are not allowed to carry out an inquiry, 2) they are not imparted scholarly authority, 3) their way of understanding and cognitive patterns are viewed as inferior, 4) the mainstream epistemology develop and support theories that see women as less intelligent and their way of understanding inferior, their activities irrelevant and insignificant unless they serve men, 5) the mainstream epistemology hide or neglect the gendered nature of power equations and 6) the mainstream epistemology produce and support theories that maintain gendered power equations (Yi Kang, 2009, p.74-75). In other words, feminist epistemology questions the positing of individual as the ultimate vehicle of knowledge, the objectivity-subjectivity dualism, “the ideal of abstract universal knowledge”, imparting more comparative value to “the context of justification over the context of discovery”, and viewing science as the ultimate paradigm (Yi Kang, 2009, p.75). There have been three specific schools of thought as part of the inquiry to develop a feminist epistemology and they are, 1) feminist stand point theory, 2) feminist postmodernism and 3) feminist empiricism (Hands, 2001). Feminist criticism has grown through and beyond these theoretical frameworks and has developed feminist 'epistemologies' rather than a single epistemological paradigm. It has also developed its own tools of inquiry and ardent critics and criticism as well. Feminist empiricism has been defined as “the argument that the sexist and androcentric claims to which the researcher objects are just the result of 'bad science'” (Hands, 2001, p.263). According to this approach, science is acceptable, even the positivism in science is valid, but its current practices are faulty (Hands, 2001, p.263). Feminist empiricism in practice, “questions the rigid dichotomy that is traditionally drawn between the ideal of a pure objective knowledge and the political values and social location of the knower” (Gardner, 2009, p.77). Feminist stand point theory on the other hand puts forth the notion that there are “certain standpoints (…) better than others for the pursuit of knowledge (Hands, 2001, p.263). To put in simple words, this theoretical approach says that people in certain positions in the society, are able to see truth in a clearer way than people in others (Hands, 2001, p.263). It will naturally follow from this that all kinds of scientific knowledge “are socially situated” (Hands, 2001, p.264). From the view of this theory, “the stand point of women offers epistemic privilege for understanding (…) gender relations under patriarchy” (Gardner, 2009, p.78). The postmodern approach to knowledge is different from both other perspectives. One argumentative premise of this approach is that content of a discourse is less important than the fact that a discourse is taking place (Hands, 2004, p.214). This approach argues that “our “epistemic” world is composed of the multiplicity and fragmentation of perspectives that arise from the differences of situations among women due to class, race, sexual orientation, and so forth” (Gardner, 2009, p.78). Here, a monolithic concept of women is negated and a women's stand point as well (Gardner, 2009, p.78). There has been criticisms raised against the feminist epistemology as well. One criticism is that the feminist theoretical approaches does not amount to a new epistemology but rather “an application of philosophical ideas originating elsewhere” (Hands, 2001, p.263). Hack (2003) raised the criticism that “the project of politicizing inquiry” is value-laden, misconstrued and “self-defeating” (p.16). Pinnick(2003) has pointed to the logical inconsistencies and empirical faults in feminist epistemological inquiries carried out so far and observed: Any feminist epistemology that radically challenges traditional theories of knowledge is unable to resolve the tension between (a) its thesis that every feminist epistemology is a sociopolitical artifact and , (b) its stated aim to articulate an epistemology that can be justified as better than its rivals (p.20). The defenders of feminist epistemology on the other hand have argued that this stream of thought is making science more science like, by rectifying the problems created by sexist biases (Grasswick, 2011, p.13). There is also the criticism raised that feminist epistemology is approving of the stereotypical notions that women are more intuitive, emotional and oriented towards more holistic thought than men (Hack, 1993). Supporters of feminist epistemology have written off all these criticisms by saying that these were faults detected in the initial stages of development of feminist epistemology, and also calling them as coming out of a fear of the feminine “other” (Grasswick, 2011, p.13). Situated Knowers Feminist epistemology, as discussed above has as its core concept, the notion that all “knowers” are “situated knowers” (Gardner, 2009, p.77). This idea is derived from the fact that, “the historical particulars of knowers, such as their embodiment, emotions, relationship with others, and social status, affect both their access to knowledge and the way their knowledge claims are expressed, justified, and accepted as authoritative” (Gardner, 2009, p.77). The differences in knowing arising from embodiment is not simply a fixed physical experience, “is not about fixed location in a refined body, female or otherwise, but about nodes in fields, inflections in orientations, and responsibility for difference in material semiotic fields of meaning” (as cited in Morawski, 1994, p.101). Emotions in this context relates to the “emotions generated by (…) class, race, sex and unique situations” (Morawski, 1994, p.11). Relationships with other is yet another fact that determines the knowledge pattern of a situated knower and this amounts to “relations among differently situated knowers” (Buchanan abd Bryman, 2009, p.251). Using the concept of situated knowers, it can also be deducted that “actual women, and their experiences, are multiple, according to their social and cultural locations, and this multiplicity needs to be acknowledged and unravelled” (Buchanan and Bryman, 2009, p.247). There are also certain other factors as well that determine situated knowers and they are, know-how, cognitive style, beliefs acquired from life and its situations, and generally acquired world views. While applying the concept of situated knowers to feminist epistemology, “the idea is not that women share a gendered cognitive style, but rather that their situated perspective- their collection of experiences as members of an oppressed group- affords them the possibility of knowledge not available to those outside this perspective” (Payne and Barbera, p.269). Similarly, the skills, abilities, beliefs and world views are defined by the 'situatedness' of a group and hence the validity of situated knowers. The concept of gender and gender roles arise from the notion of situated knowers. Or from another angle, it can be said that gender is the core “organizing theme” of any feminist discourse (Crumpton, 2008, p.21). Gender is different from a person's sex in the sense that “sex refers to a biological difference or function, whereas, gender describes those social functions or ways in which meanings and evaluations are associated by members of a culture” (Crumpton, 2008, p.21). Gender roles are defined as “social skills, abilities and ways of acting appropriately as members of a society depending on whether they are male or female” (Crumpton, 2008, p.21). Gender norms are part of a gender ideology that “includes widely shared assumptions about how people are and what the relations between the sexes ought to be” (Crumpton, 2008, p.23). Similarly there exist gendered traits and virtues attributed to a person as part of his/her sex, that makes statements like 'women are more nurturing and caring than men', or 'women are more emotionally connected with nature' (Crumpton, 2008, p.19). There are also performative and contextual manifestations of gender that makes the so called 'masculine' and 'feminine' behaviors possible (Butler, 1990). All these gender aspects of an individual constitute a gender identity and the situated knowledge of all gendered identities constitute a gendered knowledge that will become the mainstream knowledge of the society. This will also produce gendered aspects of different determinants of situated knowledge including gendered bodies, gendered emotions, gendered relationship with others, gendered cognitive styles, gendered skills, gendered beliefs and world views and gendered social status. It is in an attempt to address these gendered constructs that feminist epistemologists developed the three theoretical approaches, namely, feminist empiricism, feminist stand point theory and feminist postmodernism. Stand point theory Stand point theory represents an epistemological perspective that puts in the center, the question, knowledge understood and constructed by whom constitutes, the generally understood notion of knowledge. This is a particular genre of theory that has been claimed as “a way of empowering oppressed groups, valuing their experiences, and of pointing toward a way to develop an “oppositional consciousness” just because it questions the very fundamentals of knowledge itself (Harding, 2004, p.3). It has been viewed as “an epistemology, a methodology (…) and a political strategy by its proponents (Harding, 2004, p.3). The theory had its origins in “Marxian thought” (Harding, 2004, p.3). The feminist standpoint theory claims to have an insight into: The dominant sexist and androcentric ideologies that shaped everyone's life to the relations between, on the one hand, the actualities of women's everyday lives and, on the other hand, the conceptual practices of powerful social institutions, especially including research disciplines” (Harding, 2004, p.6). It is a new way of looking at the society from a feminist's eye, which is not just an ideological position, but a privileged epistemological vantage point from which the world can be seen in a new and more truthful light, a position that is more alert about the falsehood of the 'common sense' produced by dominant group ideologies. There are different kinds of feminist stand point theory perspectives and they include, centrality-based stand point theory, collective self-consciousness- based stand point theory, cognitive style-based stand point theory, and oppression-based stand point theory. The centrality-based stand point theory is anchored in the notion that women are at the center of human existence as it is she who gives birth, and also that this centrality gives her an epistemologically privileged position to understand the equations of domination that prevail in the society (Yi Kang, 2009, p.82). The collective self-consciousness-based stand point theory is about women realizing that their self-image and their social image as women are constructs of a male stand point and also about women developing a self-image that deconstructs the sexual objectification that is a part of the mainstream self-image and social image (MacKinnon, 1999). The cognitive style-based stand point theory distinguishes male and female cognitive style based on the fact that male and female gender identities make both to see the world in different ways (Rose, 1987). Oppression-based feminist stand point theory states that women are oppressed, and to be oppressed is a privileged position to understand the oppresser-oppressed equations of the society and rectify it (Collins, 2000). This theoretical realm is all about “developing one's own point of view” at individual level, and at the level of the group which shares the specific oppressive experience (Collins, 2000, p.30). For example, Collins (2000) has pointed out that this stand point is at one level valid for all black women, but there can be further different stand points among them, based on their class, or nationality (Collins, 2000, p.95). Stand point theory has been identified as a critical theory that helps the oppressed to get empowered and rectify the social conditions that lead to their oppression (Grasswick, 2011, p.243). Criticism of feminist stand point theory has pointed out that if it is agreed that certain ethical values are associated with the feminist stand point as suggested by the stand point theory, then to preserve those ethical values, humanity will have to sustain the present gender equations (Hack, 1993, p.38). The postmodern feminists also have raised criticism to stand point theory saying that women cannot have a shared knowledge of the nature of their oppression just because among women there are more than one stand point, based on race, social status, sexual orientation etc. (Gardner, 2009, p.78). References Buchanan, D. and Bryman, A. (2009) The SAGE handbook of organizational research methods, London: SAGE Publications. Butler, J. (1990) Gender trouble, New York: Routledge. Collins, P.H. (2000) Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment, London: Routledge. Crumpton, A.D. (2008) An ethic of responsibility and work: The dailiness of rural working women's lives, Michigan: ProQuest. Gardner, C.V. (2009) The a to z of feminist philosophy, Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Grasswick, H.E. (2011) Feminist epistemology and philosophy of science: Power in knowledge, Berlin: Springer. Hack, S. (1993) Epistemological reflections of an old feminist: Reason papers, 18, p.31-42. Hack, S. (2003) Knowledge and propaganda: Reflections of an old feminist, In Pinnick, C.L., Cortege, N. and Almeder, R.F. (Eds.), Scrutinizing feminist epistemology: An examination of gender in science (p.7-20), Chapel Hill, NC: Rutgers University Press. Hands, D.W. (2001) Reflection without rules: Economic methodology and contemporary science theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harding, S.G. (2004) The feminist stand point theory reader: Intellectual and political controversies, London: Routledge. MacKinnon, C. 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