Who Knows: From Quine to a Feminist Empiricism - Softcover

Lynn Hankinson Nelson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566390079 ISBN 13: 9781566390071

Publisher: Temple University Press, 1992

Synopsis

In the past fifteen years, feminist science critics have, for the most part, rejected empiricism because of its identification with positivism. This book proposes the view that the evolving network of our theories does and should incorporate political views, including those shaped by, and shaping in turn, our experiences of gender.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Establishes a framework for a much-needed dialogue between feminist science critics and other scientists and scholars about the nature of science

From the Inside Flap:

"Nelson's work here has consequences for some of the pressing issues in feminist epistemology-relativism, individualism, the global variety among the perceivers in a generously democratic community of science."
—Marilyn Frye

"This is an interesting and substantial book. Joining in the debate...on the question of empiricism and its usefulness for feminist science criticism, Nelson offers a way of dealing with the problems of empiricism.... Her accounts of the inadequacies of positivism (Hemple, Nagel) and Kuhnian theory; her careful positioning of her theory in relation to other feminist work; and her lucid exposition throughout...all make this a valuable course book."
—Women in Philosophy Newsletter

"Scholarly and readable, Who Knows is addressed to feminists, scientists, philosophers of science." ... A useful introduction to philosophy of science for feminists and to feminist science criticism for philosophers and scientists."
—Teaching Philosophy

"I welcome this book, both scholarly and readable, which takes up the matter of feminism and empiricism directly and in a new way, privileging Quine, not Kuhn, as representative of post-positivistic philosophy of science. The turning of feminist attention to Quine is timely, if not indeed overdue."
Marilyn Frye, Michigan State University

About this edition

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 1566390079
• ISBN 13: 9781566390071
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336