Gender in the substance of chemistry, part 2: An agenda for theory

Ágnes Kovács*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Feminist science criticism has mostly focused on the theories of the life sciences, while the few studies about gender and the physical sciences locate gender in the practice, and not in the theories, of these fields. Arguably, the reason for this asymmetry is that the conceptual and methodological tools developed by (feminist) science studies are not suited to analyze the hard sciences for gender-related values in their content. My central claim is that a conceptual, rather than an empirical, analysis is needed; one should be looking for general metaphysical principles which serve as the conceptual foundation for the scientific theory, and which, in other contexts, constitute the philosophical foundations of a worldview that legitimates social inequalities. This position is not being advocated anywhere in the philosophy of science, but its elements are to be found in Helen Longino's theory of science, and in the social epistemology and ontology of Georg Lukács.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)121-143
Number of pages23
JournalHyle
Volume18
Issue number2
StatePublished - Dec 2012

Keywords

  • Feminist science studies
  • Georg Lukács
  • Helen Longino
  • Social epistemology
  • Sociology of scientific knowledge
  • Standpoint theory

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