Feminism and Science

by Keller, Evelyn Fox; Longino, Helen E.

• ISBN13: 9780198751465
• ISBN10: 019875146X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-05-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

(Series copy) The new Oxford Readings in Feminism series maps the dramatic influence of feminist theory on every branch of academic knowledge. Offering feminist perspectives on disciplines from history to science, each book assembles the most important articles written on its field in the last ten to fifteen years. Old stereotypes are challenged and traditional attitudes upset in these lively-- and sometimes controversial--volumes, all of which are edited by feminists prominent in their particular field. Comprehensive, accessible, and intellectually daring, the Oxford Readings in Feminism series is vital reading for anyone interested in the effects of feminist ideas within the academy. Can science be gender-neutral? In recent years, feminist critics have raised troubling questions about the practice and goals of traditional science, demonstrating the existence of a pervasive bias in the ways in which scientists conduct and discuss their work. This exciting volume gathers seventeen essays--by sociologists, scientists, historians, and philosophers--of seminal significance in the emerging field of feminist science studies. Analyzing topics from the stereotype of the "Man of Reason" to the "romantic" language of reproductive biology, these fascinating essays challenge readers to take a fresh look at the limitations--and possibilities--of scientific knowledge.

Author Biography

RIAbout the Editors:
Evelyn Fox Keller is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of Refiguring Life. Helen E. Longino teaches women's studies and philosophy at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Science as Social Knowledge.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	vii
Introduction	1	(16)
Evelyn Fox Keller
Helen E. Longino
I. Early Statements
Women's Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology	17	(11)
Dorothy E. Smith
Feminism and Science	28	(13)
Evelyn Fox Keller
Reason, Science and the Domination of Matter	41	(16)
Genevieve Lloyd
II. Representations of Sex and Gender
Animal Sociology and a Natural Economy of the Body Politic, Part II: The Past is the Contested Zone	57	(16)
Donna Haraway
Body, Bias, and Behaviour: A Comparative Analysis of Reasoning in Two Areas of Biological Science	73	(18)
Helen E. Longino
Ruth Doell
Pre-Theoretical Assumptions in Evolutionary Explanations of Female Sexuality	91	(12)
Elisabeth A. Lloyd
The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles	103	(18)
Emily Martin
III. Language, Gender, and Science
Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science	121	(16)
Nancy Leys Stepan
Why Mammals are Called Mammals: Gender Politics in Eighteenth-Century Natural History	137	(17)
Londa Schiebinger
Language and Ideology in Evolutionary Theory: Reading Cultural Norms into Natural Law	154	(19)
Evelyn Fox Keller
Nuclear Language and How We Learned to Pat the Bomb	173	(14)
Carol Cohn
IV. Gender and Knowledge
The Mind's Eye	187	(16)
Evelyn Fox Keller
Christine R. Grontkowski
Though This Be Method, Yet There is Madness in It: Paranoia and Liberal Epistemology	203	(17)
Naomi Scheman
A Science of Mars or of Venus?	220	(15)
Mary Tiles
Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is `Strong Objectivity'?	235	(14)
Sandra Harding
Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective	249	(15)
Donna Haraway
Subjects, Power, and Knowledge: Description and Prescription in Feminist Philosophies of Science	264	(16)
Helen E. Longino
Bibliography	280	(5)
Index	285