2. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Sandra Harding Student Edition Prepared by: Dr. Kay Picart

3. Related Websites n http://ww.cddc.vt.edu/feminism /Harding.html http://ww.cddc.vt.edu/feminism /Harding.html http://ww.cddc.vt.edu/feminism /Harding.html n http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/facul ty/pages/harding.html http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/facul ty/pages/harding.html http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/facul ty/pages/harding.html

4. Introductory Questions n What is “science”? n What constitutes n “knowledge”?

5. Introductory Questions n What does the term “feminist” mean? n Do “feminism”/s and critiques of culture or politics have anything to contribute to discussions concerning the epistemology and ethics of science?

6. Key Themes: Fill in the blank. n “Feminist analyses n of science, technology n and knowledge are n not ____lithic. n There is no single set n of claims beyond a n few generalities that could n be called ‘feminism’ without n controversy among feminists.” (6)

7. Key Themes: Fill in the blanks n “Science is p_______ by other means, and it also generates reliable information about the empirical world. Science is more than politics, of course, but it is that.” (10)

8. Key Themes: Fill in the blanks n “Science contains n both progressive and n r_______ tendencies. n So does feminism.” n (10)

9. Key Themes: Fill in the blanks n “The same can be said of feminism. n It too contains both n progressive and n regressive tendencies. n It is not usefully n conceptualized without qualification as n inherently good--and of course no one n characterizes it as value-n______...” (10- 11)

10. Key Themes: Fill in the blanks n “The observer and n observed are in the n same causal plane... n Neither knowers nor n the knowledge they n produce are or could be n impartial, dis____________, value-neutral, Archimedean...” (11)

11. Key Themes: Fill in the blanks n “We cannot ‘strip nature bare’ to ‘reveal her s______,’ as conventional views have held, no matter how long the striptease continues or how rigorous its choreography, we will always find under each ‘veil’ only nature-as- conceptualized-within-cultural-projects; we will always (but not only) find more veils...” (12)

12. Key Themes: Fill in the blanks n “It is necessary to decenter w_____, n m______-class, h_____sexual, n Western women in n Western feminist n thought and yet still n generate feminist n analyses from the n perspective of women’s lives...” (13)

13. Key Themes: n “... Gender is fundamentally a r_______, not a thing... As Judith Butler argues, gender is not an ‘interior state’ but a p__________ that each of acts and reenacts daily...” (13)

14. Key Themes: n “Gender relations in any particular historical situation are always constructed by the entire array of h___________ social relations in which ‘man’ or ‘woman’ participates. The forms of femininity prescribed for the plantation owner’s wife was exactly what was forbidden for the black slave woman...” (14)

15. Key Themes: n “The n_______ sciences are illuminatingly conceptualized as part of the s_____ sciences. What kind of theoretical framework will enable us to understand sciences-in-society and the consequent society-in-sciences?”

16. Key Discussion Question n Why is “Physics” a bad model for physics?

17. Guide Questions for Next Meeting n Why does Minh-ha entitle her essay “Outside in, Inside Out”? n In what ways do Minh-ha’s documentary films problematize the politics of the gaze in contemporary film-making?