Topics Profession

Question This is kind of a counterfactual question. If the atmosphere in the past had been made more inviting to women would we presently have knowledge that we do not have at present? We all know I think that sensitivities enter and often create philosophy along with poetry. Some sensitivities have been left on the sidelines, just how heavy a price have we paid for this? Is it presently even productive to ask such a question? James Ont, Canada

Accepted:
October 26, 2005

Comments

Many feminist philosophers have argued that a lot would be different if women had been equally involved with men in the generation of knowledge. These philosophers contend that science, philosophy, and other branches of knowledge are both incomplete and distorted for having neglected the perspectives of, not only women, but all socially marginalized people. They argue that social stratification, rather than inherent differences in the way men and women think, produces distortions of perspective that influence the way theories are conceived, developed, and tested, and that affect even the way we think about what knowledge is.

Other feminist philosophers, like myself, take a alightly different view. We agree that social stratification has had many bad consequences for human knowledge, the worst being the way institutionalized science has increasingly come to serve the needs of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the most vulnerable members of our human community. But we don't agree that the problem is sexist bias in the core concepts and methods of inquiry. We see no reason to think that the nature of scientific theorizing or philosophical inquiry would change fundamentally if women were to become equally involved with men in the academy and the laboratory. We see the arguments for greater inclusiveness in science to be ethical, not epistemic. That is, whether or not we can expect human inquiry to improve by diversifying the community of inquirers, there is a basic moral obligation to make the inherently rewarding activity of seeking knowledge accessible to all.

I'm not sure what you include within the scope of 'knowledge'. Philosophy? Poetry?

If the political atmosphere had been different in any number of ways, different people would have produced philosophy and poetry. It is reasonable to suppose that different people with different sensibilities would have pursued different projects and had different ideas.

You wonder whether it's productive to ask your question. I think that any answer will be vague (as above) unless you have a well-worked-out theory of gender (or race or class or....) and a good historical understanding that allows you to apply the theory to the past.

I agree with Louise Antony on this matter. In my opinion, the contribution of feminism is to social justice, rather than to the theory of knowledge.