Radical Feminist Epistemology

Standpoint epistemology is a branch within feminist epistemology that Godfrey Smith labels “radical feminist epistemology”. Standpoint epistemology concerns itself with refuting the idea that “situatedness” is a hindrance to science. Instead, this branch celebrates situatedness due to the existence of “facts that can only be [that are] visible from a special point of view, the point of view of people who have been oppressed or marginalized by society” (Godfrey-Smith, 142). As a result “science will benefit from taking more seriously the ideas developed by people with this special point of view” as these individuals have better access to crucial facts, unlike their more privileged counterparts (Godfrey-Smith, 142). The aim, however, is not to prove the superiority of ideas shared and

This idea was expressed in Godfrey’s example of primatology in which women began to observe trends in the sexual behaviors of primates that had yet to be uncovered. Sarah Hrdy, for example, observed that “female [primates] seem to engage in subtle patterns of manipulation of male behavior” and that “much of the manipulation may be directed at influencing male behavior toward offspring” (Godfrey-Smith, 140). This discovery counters that of the classical biological view that “female [primates] were seen as passive” and were simply being dominated by their male counterparts (Godfrey-Smith, 141). The reason for this discovery can be attributed to standpoint theory, in that a marginalized group, in this instance being female primatologists, held a different view of female primates because they identified with the female primates because they themselves were female. In addition, standpoint epistemology also allows for women to bring a “different kind of social interaction to scientific