Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science (Synthese Library, Vol. 161)

Are Western epistemology, metaphysics, methodology and the philosophy of science grounded only in men's distinctive understandings of themselves, others, and nature? Does this less than human understanding distort our models of reason and of scientific inquiry? In different ways, the papers in this collection explore the evidence for these increasingly reasonable and intriguing questions. They identify how it is distinctively masculine perspectives on masculine experience which have shaped the most fundamental and formal aspects of systematic thought in philosophy and the natural and social sciences - precisely the aspects of thought believed most gender-neutral. They show how these understandings ground Aristotle's biology and metaphysics; the very definition of the problems of philosophy in Plato, Descartes, Hobbes and Rousseau; the `adversary method' which is the paradigm of philosophic and scientific reasoning; principles of individuation in philosophical ontology and the philosophy of language; individualistic assumptions in psychology; functionalism in sociological and biological theory; evolutionary theory; the methodology of political science; Marxist political economy; and conceptions of `objective inquiry' in the social and natural sciences. These essays also begin to identify for us the distictive aspects of women's experience which can provide the resources needed for the creation of a truly human understanding. Audience: The book will be of interest to those involved in epistemology, and philosophy of the natural and social sciences, as well as feminist scholars in philosophy. The work will also be of value for theorists, methodologists, and feminist scholars in the natural and social sciences. Woman Is Not A Rational Animal : On Aristotle's Biology Of Reproduction / Lynda Lange -- Aristotle And The Politicization Of The Soul / Elizabeth V. Spelman -- The Unit Of Political Analysis : Our Aristotelian Hangover / Judith Hicks Stiehm -- Have Only Men Evolved? / Ruth Hubbard -- Evolution And Patriarchal Myths Of Scarcity And Competition / Michael Gross And Mary Beth Averill -- Charlotte Perkins Gilman : Forerunner Of A Feminist Social Science / Ann Palmeri -- The Trivialization Of The Notion Of Equality / Louise Marcil-lacoste -- How Can Language Be Sexist? / Merrill B. Hintikka Jaakko Hintikka -- A Paradigm Of Philosophy : The Adversary Method / Janice Moulton -- The Man Of Professional Wisdom / Kathryn Pyne Addelson -- Gender And Science / Evelyn Fox Keller -- The Mind's Eye / Evelyn Fox Keller And Christine R. Grontkowski -- Individualism And The Objects Of Psychology / Naomi Scheman -- Political Philosophy And The Patriarchal Unconscious : A Psychoanalytic Perspective On Epistemology And Metaphysics / Jane Flax -- The Feminist Standpoint : Developing The Ground For A Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism / Nancy C.m. Hartsock -- Why Has The Sex/gender System Become Visible Only Now? / Sandra Harding. Edited By Sandra Harding And Merrill B. Hintikka. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Woman is Not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle’S Biology of Reproduction....Pages 1-15 Aristotle and the Politicization of the Soul....Pages 17-30 The Unit of Political Analysis: Our Aristotelian Hangover....Pages 31-43 Have Only Men Evolved?....Pages 45-69 Evolution and Patriarchal Myths of Scarcity and Competition....Pages 71-95 Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Forerunner of a Feminist Social Science....Pages 97-119 The Trivialization of the Notion of Equality....Pages 121-137 How Can Language be Sexist?....Pages 139-148 A Paradigm of Philosophy: The Adversary Method....Pages 149-164 The Man of Professional Wisdom....Pages 165-186 Gender and Science....Pages 187-205 The Mind’S Eye....Pages 207-224 Individualism and the Objects of Psychology....Pages 225-244 Political Philosophy and the Patriarchal Unconscious: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Epistemology and Metaphysics....Pages 245-281 The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism....Pages 283-310 Why Has the Sex/Gender System Become Visible Only Now?....Pages 311-324 The conservatism of Aristotle has long been a subject of discussion among philosophers.