Rooney, Phyllis. What is Distinctive about Feminist Epistemology at 25?
2012, in Sharon L. Crasnow, and Anita M. Superson (eds), Out from the Shadows: Analytical Feminist Contributions to Traditional Philosophy, Studies in Feminist Philosophy. New York: Oxford Academic.
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Added by: Jimena ClavelAbstract:
Attempts to identify feminist epistemology by picking out particular topics or projects that supposedly all feminist epistemologists engage, or by focusing on specific claims or theories about knowledge (justification, objectivity) to which all or most feminist epistemologists subscribe, often end up mischaracterizing the field. I argue that what makes feminist epistemology distinctive, a quarter century into its development, is best determined by examining what makes mainstream epistemology still so distinctively non‐feminist. For example, feminist epistemology includes a critical examination of historical and contemporary forms of epistemic subordination and disempowerment that it seeks to bring out from the shadows of traditional theorizing in epistemology, that is, forms of exclusion or distancing of women and other “others” from domains, conceptions, and idealizations of knowledge and of epistemology. This feminist project, though it encompasses quite a range of specific inquiries, is distinctive to the extent that proponents of mainstream projects or perspectives in epistemology remain hostile to, dismissive of, or notably ignorant of it. Mainstream marginalizations and dismissals of feminist work are underwritten by distinctively limited understandings of specific features of epistemological theorizing that come to the fore in an examination of the relationship between feminist and mainstream work in epistemology. These features include: a recognition of the historical situatedness of epistemology; an appreciation of different types of relationships between epistemology and politics; the promotion of epistemological reflexivity; critical re-assessments of starting concepts and questions in epistemology; and recognition of important connections between epistemic normativity and moral or political normativity.Comment: The paper is this a good introduction to the overarching project of feminist epistemology. This chapter offers not only a review of the project of feminist epistemology, but also a critical overview of mainstream epistemology by examining the reception of the former by the latter. It also highlights the crucial contributions of feminist epistemology to epistemology, more widely. In addition to epistemology courses, it can also be a good addition to courses that aim to explore how philosophers have sought to transform canonical and traditional philosophy.
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