Why Standpoint Still Matters

Alison Wylie, professor of philosophy and anthropology, University of Washington. In this talk Professor Wylie will address standpoint theory’s contentious history as an explicitly political as well as a social epistemology. Professor Wylie will respond to two standard critiques -- that feminist standpoint theories are inescapably essentialist, and entail a corrosive relativism -- and make the case for a constructive reformulation. The challenge, she argues, is to understand how we can best mobilize the resources of situated knowledge, specifically those that arise from socially marginal standpoints. Professor Wylie is co-editor of the feminist philosophy journal Hypatia. She is also author of Thinking from Things: Essays in the Philosophy of Archaeology (University of California Press, 2002) and many articles on feminist philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of science. She is co-editor with Lori Gruen of Hypatia’s special issue on Feminist Science Studies (2004). Wylie is currently president of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association.