CSWIP: Symposium at the CPA
May 29, 2023 → Jul 24, 2023
Discovering Reality: Forty Years Later
Explore the Impacts and Trajectories of Harding and Hintikka's Groundbreaking 1983 Volume 'Discovering Reality' with our Esteemed Speakers:
Chair: Rebecca Ring; PhD Candidate; Philosophy; York University; ringr@yorku.ca
Invited Speakers:
Naomi Scheman; Professor Emeritus; Philosophy and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies; University of Minnesota
Andrea Sullivan-Clarke; Assistant Professor; Philosophy; University of Windsor
Lauren Edwards; PhD Candidate; Philosophy; York University
Time: 8:30 am.
Ground-breaking works of some of the most influential feminist thinkers are featured in Harding and Hintikka’s 1983 anthology, Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Harding and Hintikka invited contributors to focus on the theories of knowledge that underly political and social beliefs and practices of patriarchal cultures, and on the metaphysics which support and reflect those beliefs and practices. They ask, “Are there – can there be – distinctive feminist perspectives on epistemology, metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science?” (p. ix). What emerged were serious challenges to the standard modernist view that these fields of philosophy (and science) are immune to social influences. With systematized ideals of value neutrality, truth and objectivity, Western philosophy and science persist in the belief that knowledge of reality and how to discover it transcend feminist critiques. That belief is shown to be false by the writers in this volume, such as Sandra Harding, Nancy Hartsock and Naomi Scheman. They articulate and develop concepts and frameworks, such as feminist standpoints, that show authoritative knowledge systems within social structures of domination and oppression are necessarily partial and perversions of reality.
In this symposium, we will revisit the question Sandra Harding posed on the reissuing of Discovering Reality in 2003. In her introduction, “Discovering Reality Twenty Years Later”, Harding asks, “How should we understand the continuing value of these essays for today’s students, teachers, and scholars in philosophy, women’s studies and other fields?” (p. ix). She identifies some of the ways in which feminist thinkers have succeeded. The issues raised in the volume were not only relevant in 2003 (and 2023), but the concepts and concerns articulated and developed have become more familiar in mainstream research, fields and disciplines outside feminist research, and beyond the halls of academia. The volume shows that feminist work has been a collective endeavor from the beginning and presents “a transformed and transforming collective consciousness” (p. ix).
The symposium will begin with a welcome message from Sandra Harding, recorded in conversation with Naomi Scheman.
Lauren Edwards will talk about “Pernicious Love Myths”, wherein she critically examines theories of love that are grounded in atomistic individualism, myths of certainty and heterosexism. She argues that love is, in part, a social construction, and that theories of love are not pure descriptions of some ‘thing’ out there. Theories of love are generative, and as such, they don’t just describe love, but they create it.
Andrea Sullivan Clarke will talk about “Discovering Reality and a First Nations/American Indian Standpoint Theory”. She considers the changes in our discipline since the publication of Discovering Reality and looks to the future. She will share her conception of a theory of First Nations/American Indian standpoint and provide a general sketch, wherein she calls attention to important questions and concerns for future research.
Naomi Scheman will weave it all together and talk about the thinking/writing of “Individualism and the Objects of Psychology”. She will examine how feminist philosophy has developed and changed since the publication of Discovering Reality, and how her own theorizing about the issues in her paper have evolved - including into metaphysics/ontology more broadly.
This is an amazing panel! As organizer and chair, I am immensely grateful to these speakers and to the revolutionary, courageous, and brilliant feminist thinkers that shaped the landscape, giving us all the footing to situate knowledges, standpoints and relationality in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, social political philosophy, and beyond. We look forward to celebrating the 40th anniversary of Discovering Reality with all of you and hearing how it has impacted your work and lives.
Rebecca Ring PhD Candidate (ABD), Philosophy York University. Toronto
York University sits on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been cared for by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis, and is currently home to many Indigenous Peoples. I acknowledge this history and the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.
