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- From: holmes@garnet.idbsu.edu (Randall Holmes)
- Subject: Re: The "validity" of feminist philosophy
- Message-ID: <1992Nov10.165822.2107@guinness.idbsu.edu>
- Sender: usenet@guinness.idbsu.edu (Usenet News mail)
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- Organization: Boise State University
- References: <BxG75H.33@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <1992Nov9.183535.17268@husc3.harvard.edu>
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:58:22 GMT
- Lines: 43
-
- In article <1992Nov9.183535.17268@husc3.harvard.edu> mcrae@husc8.harvard.edu writes:
- >In article <BxG75H.33@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, jwales@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jimmy donal wales) writes:
- >>>Well, there are a lot of people working in feminist epistemology and
- >>>feminist ethics, so I think the onus is on you (at the beginning) to offer
- >>>some reason for thinking that what they're doing isn't worthwhile.
- >>
- >> This is my first contribution to this particular thread, and I begin
- >> with a confession of ignorance. I have no idea at all what 'feminist
- >> epistemology' would consist of.
- >> [...]
- >> But feminist _epistemology_? I honestly confess that I have no idea what
- >> such a field would study, or why.
- >>
- >> So, in this case, I think that the onus is on those _doing_ this kind of
- >> work to explain to us what it is and why they think it is worthwhile.
- >
- >Agreed 100% -- but there are two different things being confused here. I
- >agree that people working in a field bear, in general, the primary
- >responsibility for explaining what they're doing and why it's worthwhile.
- >But if someone comes up and tells me that some field in which lots of
- >people are working is actually a waste of time, or "invalid" (I wish I
- >knew what that meant) or whatever, then I think the onus is on that person
- >to give me some reason to believe them. There are all kinds of reasons
- >they might give (a good one would be "The people in this field have never
- >made any effort to explain exactly what it is they're doing and why it's
- >important") but if they don't give any good reason at all, I'm not going
- >to take them seriously.
- >
- >Andrew.
- >--
- >Andrew McRae Internet: mcrae@husc.harvard.edu
- > BITnet: mcrae@HUSC
-
- Except in extreme cases. Feminist epistemology is absurd, unless one
- believes in "woman's intuition". The ways in which people know things
- do not depend on their gender in any _philosophically_ relevant way.
-
-
- --
- The opinions expressed | --Sincerely,
- above are not the "official" | M. Randall Holmes
- opinions of any person | Math. Dept., Boise State Univ.
- or institution. | holmes@opal.idbsu.edu
-