Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science (Studies in Epistemology)

Jul 6, 2026

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Discovering Reality presents feminist perspectives aimed at diagnosing and overcoming sexist distortions across epistemology, metaphysics, methodology, and the philosophy of science. It argues that simply adding facts about women cannot correct frameworks that treat men’s lives and beliefs as the human norm. Feminist critique is positioned as a foundation for a more fundamental project: rooting out how entrenched inquiry theories mirror patriarchal practice, and grounding what counts as knowledge in lived experience shaped by social relations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages342

Reading Time8 h 47 min

Table of Contents

Introduction

Woman Is Not a Rational Animal

Aristotle and the Politicization of the Soul

The Unit of Political Analysis

Have Only Men Evolved?

Evolution and Patriarchal Myths of Scarcity and Competition

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Trivialization of the Notion of Equality

How Can Language Be Sexist?

A Paradigm of Philosophy

The Man of Professional Wisdom

Gender and Science

The Mind’s Eye

Individualism and the Objects of Psychology

Political Philosophy and the Patriarchal Unconscious

The Feminist Standpoint

Why Has the Sex/Gender System Become Visible Only Now?

Index of Names

DISCOVERING REALITY SYNTHESE LIBRARY STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Managing Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Florida State University, Tallahassee Editors: DONALD DAVIDSON, University of California, Berkeley GABRIËL NUCHELMANS, University of Leyden WESLEY C. SALMON, University of Pittsburgh VOLUME 161 DISCOVERING REALITY Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science Edited by SANDRA HARDING Dept. of Philosophy, University of Delaware and MERRILL B. HINTIKKA Dept. of Philosophy, Florida State University KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBook ISBN: 0-306-48017-4 Print ISBN: 90-277-1496-7 ©2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©1983 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: [http://kluweronline.com](http://kluweronline.com) and Kluwer's eBookstore at: [http://ebooks.kluweronline.com](http://ebooks.kluweronline.com) TABLE OF CONTENTS SANDRA HARDING AND MERRILL B. HINTIKKA / Introduction ix LYNDA LANGE / Woman Is Not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle’s Biology of Reproduction 1 ELIZABETH V. SPELMAN / Aristotle and the Politicization of the Soul 17 JUDITH HICKS STIEHM / The Unit of Political Analysis: Our Aristotelian Hangover 31 RUTH HUBBARD / Have Only Men Evolved? 45 MICHAEL GROSS AND MARY BETH AVERILL / Evolution and Patriarchal Myths of Scarcity and Competition 71 ANN PALMERI / Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Forerunner of a Feminist Social Science 97 LOUISE MARCIL-LACOSTE / The Trivialization of the Notion of Equality 121 MERRILL B. HINTIKKA AND JAAKKO HINTIKKA / How Can Language Be Sexist? 139 JANICE MOULTON / A Paradigm of Philosophy: The Adversary Method 149 KATHRYN PYNE ADDELSON / The Man of Professional Wisdom 165 EVELYN FOX KELLER / Gender and Science 187 EVELYN FOX KELLER AND CHRISTINE R. GRONTKOWSKI / The Mind’s Eye 207 NAOMI SCHEMAN / Individualism and the Objects of Psychology 225 JANE FLAX / Political Philosophy and the Patriarchal Unconscious: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Epistemology and Metaphysics 245 NANCY C. M. HARTSOCK / The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism 283 SANDRA HARDING / Why Has the Sex/Gender System Become Visible Only Now? 311 INDEX OF NAMES 325 We dedicate this volume to the memory of Jane English, whose brilliance, inspiration, courage and warmth are sorely missed by her colleagues in philosophy and by her friends. SANDRA HARDING AND MERRILL B. HINTIKKA INTRODUCTION During the last decade, feminist research has attempted to add understandings of women and their social activities to what we all thought we knew about nature and social life. However, from the very beginning of this project, it has appeared to be in tension with some of the most fundamental insights of the Second Women’s Movement. Only recently has the nature of this tension become clear. Within the theories, concepts, methods and goals of inquiry we inherited from the dominant discourses we have generated an impressive collection of “facts” about women and their lives, cross-culturally and historically – and we can produce many, many more. But these do not, and cannot, add up to more than a partial and distorted understanding of the patterns of women’s lives. We cannot understand women and their lives by adding facts about them to bodies of knowledge which take men, their lives, and their beliefs as the human norm. Furthermore, it is now evident that if women’s lives cannot be understood within the inherited inquiry frameworks, than neither can men’s lives. The attempts to a

FAQs

Why does the introduction criticize simply adding facts about women to existing knowledge frameworks?

Because inherited inquiry frameworks take men’s lives and beliefs as the human norm, so added facts yield only partial and distorted understanding rather than genuine conceptual correction.

What is the “more fundamental project” called for in the collection?

To root out sexist distortions and perversions within the core theories of abstract reasoning—spanning epistemology, metaphysics, methodology, and the philosophy of science.

How does the book connect feminist perspectives to what counts as knowledge?

It argues that what counts as knowledge must be grounded on experience, and human experience varies with the social relations and activities in which people engage.

Jul 6, 2026

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