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A Critical Evaluation Of Epistemic Terms Within The Context Of Feminist Epistemology
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CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
History
of philosophy make scant mention of women philosophers prior to the
twentieth century, For a long time it was assumed that this was due to
lack of influential women philosophers. Scholars such as Mary Ellen
Waithe suggested that women have been more important in the history of
philosophy than is often mentioned1.
Before now, women have
often been excluded from prestigious area of human activity (for
example, politics or science), thereby making these activities seem
clearly “maleâ€. Such areas in this 21st century can be said to have been
more embracing of the “women folkâ€, due to the feminist clamour for
equality and opportunity to be heard, rather than been sidelined and
seen as inferior to men.
Female or women issues have often been at
the topmost at both local and international conferences, feminism can be
opposed, rejected, criticized but it cannot be ignored like religion
there seems to be some amount of passion, emotion and contradiction
involved in its debate. Even those who are male centered (male
chauvinist) have come to realize the absurdity of not recognizing the
validity of the core questions surrounding the issues of feminism.
Feminist
theory applied to epistemology has resulted in a wide variety of
arguments and claims, but common to all of them is the idea that gender
is an important (and historically neglected) consideration for the
study, critique and reconstruction of epistemology. For feminist
epistemologists, traditional western epistemology is endocentric and
male-biased. It fails to take women’s experience and perspectives into
account. Due to the existence of male domination, male norms have become
dominant norms and been regarded as objective and universal standards
for all. As such women’s was of thinking and knowing have been
considered as something inferior and invalid2. Due to this fact of
traditional Western epistemology been male-centered, feminist
epistemologists have share the view that it is inadequate, as knowledge
is meant to be seen in a pure, abstract, universal way, detached from
gender, social class and other important differences.
Although, among feminist epistemologists there are disagreements on
whether there are uniform women’s way of knowing in the global sphere,
to what extent traditional Western epistemology is male-biased, and
whether some ways of knowing are shared by both genders, but all
feminist epistemology is gender-biased and that feminist criticisms of
it will significantly contribute to the improvement of theories of
knowledge3. As such for them, traditional epistemology is not a true
representation of human unbiased epistemology.
It is to
critically evaluate the above and their (feminist epistemologists) view
on some of the epistemic terms that this project is being carried out
and also to acknowledge the contributions of at least some women to the
history of philosophy (epistemology).
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
The
issues of feminism are always problematic and sensitive. These issues
then becoming more problematic when transferred to the area of
knowledge.
Looking at the problem of “power controlâ€, where
traditional epistemology has been predicated on the ideas of men, and
women are gradually rising to question this inequality, which feminist
epistemologists are accusing the traditional western epistemology of,
because if this patriarchal nature continues, current epistemology will
not be complete, but would have been guilty of male chauvinism, making
it not a true representation of human knowledge. As such current
epistemology is labeled as “Incompleteâ€. This problem will be considered
in this work.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this study though legion, we shall be looking at two;
First, it is obvious that the fight for equality can sometimes be
exaggerated; equality itself is an ambiguous term that should not be
interpreted univocally or equivocally but analogically. Men have told a
lot of lies of their suppose superiority, women are gradually trying to
counter some of these lies with their own lies. As such the search for
the truth about the relationship that ought to exist between male and
female should constitute the core or essence of feminism.
Lastly, knowledge is central to human awareness. Humanity comprises of
both male and female. As such human knowledge should not be male
centric. The purpose of this study is therefore to construct knowledge
in such a way that women are excluded.
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY
This
project shall in scope be limited to a critical evaluation of some
epistemic perspective on such epistemic terms as knowledge, justice and
injustice, belief, pragmatism, empiricism and rationalism e.t.c as in
contrast to traditional western epistemology.
1.5 METHODOLOGY
Methodology
makes a work to be systematic, scientific, coherent and organized. A
good project ought to posses the above qualities. The method of research
therefore becomes imperative in searching for the solutions to the
problems in a given research.
The method here shall be both analytic
and critical. Analysis involves clarification of concept for easy
comprehension, while critical means not to accept assumptions but to
question them until the truth stands out clear. We shall not only
analyse, but shall seriously and critically evaluate the assumptions of
feminist epistemology with hope of finding solutions to the problem
raised under the “Statement of Problemsâ€.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This work takes a critical look at the term “Feminist epistemology†as well as their evaluation of the “epistemic terms†Feminist who are trying arguing that the quest for knowledge, which epistemology is centred on, should not be male oriented only, but that the female gender should be given an ear-say in the discus of knowledge. The task of this project is to elucidate on the terms used in epistemology within the view-point of the feminist as ... Continue reading---
