Sandra Harding
All knowledge starts from a social position, and research that begins from the lives of the marginalised is more objective, not less.
Placement
Philosopher of science: knowledge begins from a social position, and starting research from the lives of the marginalised yields “strong objectivity” – more rigorous, not less, than the view from nowhere.
Key ideas
- Standpoint epistemology
- Strong objectivity
- Postcolonial science studies
Influence
Influenced by 4
Karl Marx
influenced by
Harding modelled the feminist standpoint on Marx’s analysis of how a social position, that of labour, enables knowledge hidden from the ruling class (Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?, 1991). S. Harding, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives (1991); The Science Question in Feminism (1986); SEP “Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science”
Evidence: AI draft
Karl Marx › 1818–1883
Georg Lukács
influenced by
Harding drew on Lukács’s claim that the proletariat’s position allows insight closed to the bourgeoisie as a model for feminist standpoint theory (The Science Question in Feminism, 1986). S. Harding, The Science Question in Feminism (1986); G. Lukács, Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein (1923); SEP “Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science”
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Lukács › 1885–1971
Thomas S. Kuhn
influenced by
Harding built on the post-Kuhnian view that scientific knowledge is shaped by its historical and social setting to ask about androcentric bias (The Science Question in Feminism, 1986). S. Harding, The Science Question in Feminism (1986); T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962); SEP “Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science”
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas S. Kuhn › 1922–1996
Dorothy E. Smith
influenced by
Harding drew on Dorothy Smith’s sociology from women’s standpoint in developing feminist standpoint epistemology for the sciences (The Science Question in Feminism, 1986; Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?, 1991). S. Harding, The Science Question in Feminism (1986); Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? (1991); S. Harding (ed.), The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader (2004); D. E. Smith, The Everyday World as Problematic (1987); SEP “Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science”
Evidence: AI draft
Dorothy E. Smith › 1926–2022
Influenced 2
Patricia Hill Collins
influenced
In Black Feminist Thought (1990) Collins related her epistemology to the standpoint theories surveyed by Harding (The Science Question in Feminism, 1986), grounding it in Black women’s experience. P. H. Collins, Black Feminist Thought (1990); S. Harding, The Science Question in Feminism (1986); SEP “Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science”
Evidence: AI draft
Patricia Hill Collins › b. 1948
Uma Narayan
influenced
Narayan co-edited with Harding a collection that carried feminist epistemology and philosophy into postcolonial and multicultural perspectives (Decentering the Center, 2000). U. Narayan and S. Harding (eds.), Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World (2000)
Evidence: AI draft
Uma Narayan › b. 1958
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Donna Haraway
criticised by
Haraway answered Harding’s framing of feminist standpoint theory and ‘successor science’ with ‘situated knowledges’, a partial and embodied objectivity (Feminist Studies, 1988). D. Haraway, ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, Feminist Studies 14 (1988); S. Harding, The Science Question in Feminism, 1986
Evidence: AI draft
Donna Haraway › b. 1944
Works
Feminist empiricism, standpoint theory and postmodernism as three routes to a less distorted science.
Strong objectivity: starting research from marginalised lives makes science more, not less, objective.
Position
Harding’s “The Science Question in Feminism” distinguished three feminist responses to the sciences: feminist empiricism, which holds that sexism in science is bad science to be corrected by better method; standpoint theory, which holds that the perspective of the oppressed offers a less distorted view; and postmodernism, which doubts any unitary account. She developed the second, drawing on Marx’s and Lukács’s idea that the proletariat sees what the bourgeoisie cannot. The result is “strong objectivity”: because all knowledge is socially situated, objectivity is achieved not by pretending to a view from nowhere but by starting research from the lives of marginalised people, whose questions expose assumptions invisible from the centre.
Life & context
Sandra Harding (1935–2025) studied at Rutgers and New York University, where she took her doctorate in 1973, taught at the University of Delaware from 1976 and then at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was professor of education and women’s studies. She edited the journal Signs, consulted for UNESCO on science and gender, and lectured widely on feminist and postcolonial philosophy of science. She died in 2025.
Further main works
- Is Science Multicultural? (1998)
- Sciences from Below (2008)
Appears in
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