Engendered Pragmatism
| dc.contributor.author | Ross, Jamie P. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-09T00:45:10Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-09T00:45:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1995-06 | |
| dc.description | 295 pages | |
| dc.description.abstract | Pragmatism as a political theory develops a critical perspective, a sensitivity to context and situation, and a collaborative and interactive engagement of personal experiences that test theories. Given this focus, however, the subject matter of pragmatism does not engage issues of gender. Pragmatism, nevertheless, can be used as a tool to address and handle feminist concerns. The link between pragmatism and feminism can be made by emphasizing pragmatists' efforts to align rationality with praxis. That is, pragmatism can be analyzed in such a way as to break the traditional link of rationality to masculinity and the link of practical life to femininity. However, in so doing, there remains a residue of unrecognized assumptions and cultural attitudes that makes the link between women's experiences and philosophical praxis difficult to establish and maintain. Thus, while this dissertation critiques the absence of an analysis of gender within epistemology generally, it also proposes a new theory of knowledge: engendered pragmatism. It is a theory of knowledge as situated, created by gendered individuals within particular communities. I do not provide a feminist critique of pragmatism in which large parts of pragmatism are altered, replaced or repudiated. I provide a new view of what epistemological problems within the pragmatic tradition entail, not a new interpretation of the problems. Engendered pragmatism does not simply involve a process of highlighting women's experiences where pragmatism can solve the problems of gender issues. As a theory, engendered pragmatism is not simply the application of pragmatism to women's experiences. My claim is that one cannot be a pragmatist without being a feminist. However, one cannot be a feminist pragmatist without addressing two problems within feminist epistemology. There is a tendency within feminist epistemology to universalize and, simultaneously, to relativize women's experiences. This tendency creates the perception that women's experiences are personal truths. From a pragmatist perspective, the value of a woman's standpoint should not be couched in terms of the issue of truth. Engendered pragmatism, as a theory, encourages feminist epistemologists to use the plurality of personal experiences as practical tools for a pragmatic conception of knowledge as warrantability, not truth. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/30322 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US | |
| dc.rights | UO theses and dissertations are provided for research and educational purposes and may be under copyright by the author or the author’s heirs. Please contact us <mailto:scholars@uoregon.edu> with any questions or comments. In your email, please be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items of your inquiry. | |
| dc.subject | philosophy, pragmatism, feminist epistemologies, pragmatic epistemology, feminist pragmatism, engendered pragmatism | |
| dc.title | Engendered Pragmatism | |
| dc.type | Thesis / Dissertation |