EVIDENCE, RELATIVISM AND PROGRESS IN FEMINIST STANDPOINT THEORY

Feminist standpoint theories claim that people who are oppressed due to social factors can make important progress in science and that they can make this progress in part because of the oppression that they experience. This chapter outlines two difficulties that arise when interpreting standpoint theory in line with this claim: identifying a standard of progress, and pinpointing the role of evidence in epistemic advantage thesis. It’s then argued that feminist hinge epistemology can address these difficulties by understanding (i) progress as relative and (ii) the epistemic advantage thesis as about redefining standards of evidence. This account is preferable to alternatives because it takes the standpoint thesis seriously and preserves the internal consistency of the view, whilst also explaining why the scientific examples that standpoint theorists use are so compelling.