Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:50:40.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Justifying Feminist Social Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Linda Alcoff
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper I set out the problem of feminist social science as the need to explain and justify its method of theory choice in relation to both its own theories and those of androcentric social science. In doing this, it needs to avoid both a positivism which denies the impact of values on scientific theory-choice and a radical relativism which undercuts the emancipatory potential of feminist research. From the relevant literature I offer two possible solutions: the Holistic and the Constructivist models of theory-choice. I then rate these models according to what extent they solve the problem of feminist social science. I argue that the principal distinction between these models is in their contrasting conceptions of truth. Solving the problem of feminist social science will require understanding that what is at stake in the debate is our conception of truth. This understanding will serve to clarify, though not resolve, the various approaches to and disagreements over methodologies and explanations in feminist social science.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 2 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Feminism and Science, Part 1 , Fall 1987 , pp. 107 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Richard, Bernstein. 1983. Beyond objectivism and relativism: Science, hermeneutics, and praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Max, Black. 1954. The semantic conception of truth. In Philosophical analysis, ed. MacDonald, M.New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Donald, Davidson. 1984. Inquiries into truth and interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Pierre, Duhem. 1962. The aim and structure of physical theory. Trans. Wiener, Philip P.New York: Atheneum Press.Google Scholar
Dye, Nancy Schrom. 1979. Clio's American daughters: Male history, female reality. In The prism of sex: Essays in the sociology of knowledge, ed. Julia, Sherman, and Beck, Evelyn Torton. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Margaret, Eichler. 1980. The double standard: A feminist critique of feminist social science. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Hartry, Field. 1974. Quine and the correspondence theory. Philosophical Review April: 200–228.Google Scholar
Hartry, Field. 1980. Tarski's theory of truth. In Reference, truth and reality, ed. Platts, Mark. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Michel, Foucault. 1972. The archaeology of knowledge. Trans. Smith, A. M. Sheridan. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Michel, Foucault. 1980. Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. Ed. Gordon, Colin. Trans. Gordon, Colinet al. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Gadamer, Hans‐Georg. 1976. Philosophical hermeneutics. Trans. Linge, David E.Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gadamer, Hans‐Georg. 1984. Truth and method. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Susan, Haack. 1978. Philosophy of logics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ian, Hacking. 1984. Language, truth and reason. In Rationality and relativism, ed. Martin, Hollis, and Lukes, Steven. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sandra, Harding ed., 1976. Can theories be refuted? Boston: Reidel.Google Scholar
Sandra, Harding ed., 1977. Does objectivity in social science require value‐neutrality? Soundings LX (4): 351–366.Google Scholar
Sandra, Harding ed., 1986. The science question in feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sandra, Harding and Hintikka, Merrill B. eds., 1983. Discovering reality. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Nancy, Hartsock. 1983. Money, sex and power. New York: Longman Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Mary, Hesse. 1976. Duhem, Quine, and a new empiricism. In Can theories be refuted? See Harding 1976.Google Scholar
Mary, Hesse. 1980. Revolutions and reconstructions in the philosophy of science. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Ruth, Hubbard. 1983. Have only men evolved? In Discovering reality. See Harding and Hintikka 1983.Google Scholar
Keller, Evelyn Fox. 1982. Feminism and science. In Feminist Theory, eds. Keohane, Nannerl O.et al. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Keller, Evelyn Fox. 1985. Reflections on gender and science. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Kuhn. 1970. The structure of scientific revolutions. Second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
de Lauretis, Teresa. 1984. Alice doesn't. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catherine, MacKinnon. 1982. Feminism, marxism, method, and the state: An agenda for theory. See Keller 1982.Google Scholar
Catherine, MacKinnon. 1983. Feminism, marxism, method and the state: Toward feminist jurisprudence. Signs 8(4): 635–658.Google Scholar
Peirce, C. S. 1940. The philosophy of Peirce: Selected writings. Ed. Buchler, Justus. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar
Karl, Popper. 1962. On the sources of knowledge and inference. In Conjectures and refutations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Karl, Popper. 1972. Objective knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Elizabeth, Potter. 1984. Feminism and the crisis of objectivity. Paper presented at the American Philosophical Association conference in New York, December.Google Scholar
Hilary, Putnam. 1971. Reason, truth and history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. 1963. Two dogmas of empiricism. In From a logical point of view. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. 1981. Theories and things. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. 1983. Word and object. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Evelyn, Reed. 1978. Sexism and science. New York: Pathfinder Press.Google Scholar
Dorothy, Smith. 1977. Some implications of a sociology for women. In Woman in a man‐made world, ed. Nona, Glazer, and Waehrer, Helen Youngelson. Second edition. Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing.Google Scholar
Eliot, Sober. 1982. Realism and independence. Nous XVI(3): September: 369–385.Google Scholar
Liz, Stanley and Wise, Sue. 1983. Breaking out: Feminist consciousness and feminist research. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Alfred, Tarski. 1949. The semantic conception of truth. In Readings in philosophical analysis, ed. Feigl, H., and Sellars, W.New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts.Google Scholar
Charles, Taylor. 1979. Interpretation and the sciences of man. In Intepretive social science, ed. Paul, Rabinow, and Sullivan, William M.Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Marcia, Westcott. 1979. Feminist criticism of the social sciences. Harvard Educational Review 49(4): November: 422–430.Google Scholar