Science ,Technology and Society

Feminist epistemology and empirical methods

”[S]cience is just one way of perpetrating and legitimating male dominance.” ( Harding 1989 ,p.281).” Harding's challenge is not science –bashing type ,not to eliminate science but to improve it .The problem with science is not sexism ,the problem is that scientific knowledge reflects a set of non-cognitive interests and values which serve the political ends of Western European white males ,while suppressing other social groups.”(Harding 281)

We have seen here that on the one hand, feminist approach qua feminist philosophy of science could be understood as a thesis about the best epistemic and methodological criteria to ground philosophy of science. This approach differs from beyond epistemology type of feminist science critics represented by some others. Harding and Helen Longino fall within the group of science critics for whom objectivity and truth matters in some form. If these critics of feminist epistemology of science are justifiable, philosophy of science would be revamped to include the consideration of gender as a necessary element in the epistemology of science.