Presentation by: Brittany Harvey and Elizabeth Heffner

Theory in a Nutshell
Standpoint Theory: Our social networks influence: A) how we experience things B) how we understand and communicate with others. Our standpoint affects our world view.

A place from which we critically view the world around us.

Standpoint Theory
Theorists: Sandra Harding and Julia T. Wood
Interpretive Theory Humanistic Theory Midrange Theory

Sandra Harding and Julia T. Wood

Sandra Harding Julia T. Wood
Professor of Communication Philospher of science:

womens studies, education, philosophy at UCLA

Stick in pond image (pg 441) Focus: Standpoint of women

who are marginalized.

at UNC-CH Regards all perspectives as partial, BUT feels some are more partial than others based on perspective within different social hierarchies. Womens location on societys margins doesnt equal feminist standpoint.

Feminist Standpoint Theory Roots

Georg Hegel-1807
German philosopher Analyzed master-slave

relationship Example: Those who have been enslaved have a different perspective on the meaning of chains, laws, childbirth and punishment than their captors who participate in the same reality do.

However, since masters are

backed by the structure of the society, they have the power to make their world views stick. In essence, they are the ones writing the textbooks.

Feminist Standpoint Theory Roots

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Proletarian standpoint: The impoverished poor provide sweat equity. These people are known as societys ideal knowers. However, they are only ideal knowers if they understand the class struggle theyre involved in. From Proletarian standpoint to Feminist Standpoint If you substitute women for proletariat, and gender descrimination for class struggle, you have the formula for early feminist standpoint theorists.

Feminist Standpoint Theory Roots

Standpoint theory is Standpoint theory is also

influenced by symbolic interactionalism which suggests that gender is socially constructed.

influence by postmodern theorists like JeanFrancis Lyotard. This suggests a critique of male-centered epistemologies. Epistemologytheory of knowledge

Beloved
Scenes
Silo and the school teacher Mass murder scene School master and Sethe scene

Insert basic overview of

novel/movie http://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=4mJ_FNjlmBg (trailer) Part 1 of movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=dS3GkQE3kSg&feature=relat ed

The Cider House Rules

A story about how far we must travel to find the place where we belong. INSERT SYNOPSIS: A compassionate young man, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor there, decides to leave to see the world. http://www.youtube.com/user/Cla ssicRocknRolla1 http://www.youtube.com/user/Cla ssicRocknRolla1#p/search/4/AJhY Rp2UUH8

Scene Selectionhttp://www.youtube.com /watch?v=WxJr09u10co (trailer) Need to find scene 1:40:32

Women as a Marginalized Group

Standpoint theorists see

important differences between women and men. Julia Wood believes this is because : Men want more autonomy Women want more connectedness

The evidence is found in each groups communication: Masculine community uses speech to: accomplish tasks assert self gain power. Feminine community uses speech to: build relationships Include others Show responsiveness Wood believes gender differences are there because of cultural expectations and gender treatment.

Importance of Social Location

Standpoint theorists Sixo and the pig example

emphasize the importance of social location. Why: Belief that only the priviledeged can define gender roles or anything else in a culture.

(page 445) When Sixo denies stealing the young pig, the school teacher takes on the role of Grand Interpreter. While Sixo was clever, the schoolteacher beat him anyways to prove the point that definitions only belong to the definers.

Importance of Local Knowledge

Local Knowledge: Knowledge situated in time, place, experience, and relative power, as opposed to knowledge from nowhere thats supposedly value-free.
Harding and Local Knowledge: She put a distinction with the claim of traditional Western science that discovers truth that is value-free and available to any objective observer.

Importance of Local Knowledge

When doing research about reality, start with people

in the underclass.
Standpoint theorists do maintain, however, that the

perspectives of subordinate groups are more complete and thus, better than those of privileged groups in a society.

The Importance of Strong Objectivity

Harding and Strong

Strong Objectivity:

The strategy of starting research from the lives of women and other marginalized groups, thus providing a less false view of reality.

Objectivity: She suggests not only taking all viewpoints into account but also suggests that comprehension produced from the standpoint of dominated groups offers, by contrast, only a weak objectivity.

An Example of Strong Objectivity

To give an example of

what she means she uses Toni Morrisons Beloved:

It is absurd to imagine the U.S. slave owners view of Africans and African Americans lives could outweigh in impartiality, disinterestedness, impersonality, and objectivity their slaves view of their own and slave owners lives.

Harding emphasizes that it is the objective perspective from womens lives that provides a preferred standpoint from which to generate research projects, hypothesis, and interpretations. Perhaps such research could seriously explore perceptions of a fate worse than death.

The Standpoint of Black Feminist Thought

Patricia Hill Collins
African American sociologist

Her Book: Black Feminist Thought

The heavy concentration of

at Brandeis University Claims: patterns of intersecting oppressions African American women face in the United States have placed them in a different marginalized position in society compared to white women or black men.

the U.S. black women in domestic work coupled with racial segregation in housing and schools

Meaning it helped these women construct knowledge of how to survive in the world. Along with other AfricanAmerican feminist Collins feels they are a unique group set undeniably apart because of race and sex with a unique set of challenges.

Patricia Hill Collins

Lived experienced as a criterion of meaning:

She believes there are four ways black women validate knowledge claims.

Living through actual experiences means those individuals are more credible then those who just read about the experiences. The use of dialogue in assessing knowledge claims: Everyone has to participate in the experiment. If one person does not it is considered cheating. The ethic of caring: Emotion equals a way to show how powerful the argument can be. The ethic of personal accountability: The knowledge of the experience that someone claims has happened to them can all be evaluated based on the individuals character, values, and ethics.

Seyla Benhabib: Interactive Universalism

Professor of government at

Harvard University Wants to maintain that a universal ethical standard is a viable possibility. Sets out to defend the tradition of universalism in the face of this triplepronged critique by engaging the claims of feminism, communitarianism, and postmodernism.

Feels the force of three

major attacks on Enlightenment rationality and Habermas discourse ethics 1. Postmodern Critique 2. Communitarian Critique 3. Feminist Critique

Seyla Benhabib
Postmodern Critique
Jean-Francois Lyotard states

Communitarian Critique
Communitarians and postmodernists

that there are no longer any grand narratives on which to base a universal version of truth. Senhabib disagrees, saying that rather than reaching a consensus on how everyone should act, interacting individuals can align themselves with a common good.

are drawn together by the idea that the critique of Western rationality as seen from the perspective of the margins, from the standpoint of what and whom it excludes suppresses, delegitimatizes, renders mad, imbecilic or childish. Benhabib realizes the risk of creating a global moral template to apply to every situation. So, to avoid this risk, Benhabib stresses the idea that any panhuman ethic can be achieved through interaction with collective concrete others instead.

Seyla Benhabib: Feminist Critique

Carol Gilligan, Deborah Tannen, Sandra Harding, Julia

Wood, and Cheris Kramarae all concur that the way women experience something and then retell what happened is different from the way men experience something and talk about what happened. Main point: Regardless of these three critiques, Benhabib believes that a new breed of universal ethic is still possible. She likes to believe that this may include a obligation of helping people survive and flourish.

Crictique: Susan Hekman and Nancy Hirschmann

Feminist Scholars Concerned that Hardings version of standpoint theory

miscalculate the function that language plays in conveying ones sense of self and the perception of the world. Along with many other theorists, they feel peoples communication choices are never neutral or freevalue, so people cant separate their standpoint from the language they used to describe it. Words that are chosen are based on individuals cultural and societal filters.

Table of ContentsMy section

1. a. b.

Standpoint Theory Defining Theory in a Nutshell Theory range/Humanistic/interpreti

2.Theoristsve ai.Sandra Harding and her background Aii.Julia T. Wood and her background B. Termsstandpoint i. Synonymous with viewpoint, perspective, outlook and position. ii. Claim that the social groups within which we are located powerfully shape what we experience and know as well as how we understand and communicate with ourselves, others, and the world. Essentially, our standpoint affects our world view. iii. How the theory came to bepeople who influenced it George Hegel Info about him---master-slave relationship b. Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels i. Proletarian standpoint/ideal knowers ii. How its similar to feminist standpoint theory cd. MovieBeloved. Jean-Francois Lyotard -how postmodernism is woven into this -post modernists applaud the standpoint emphasis on knowledge
a. i.

e. MovieThe Cider House Rules

Postmodern critique: Communitarian crique: Communitarians and postmodernists are drawn together by the idea that the critique of Western rationality as seen from the perspective of the margins, from the standpoint of what and whom it excludes suppresses, delegitimatizes, renders mad, imbecilic or childish. Benhabib realizes the risk of creating a global moral template to apply to every situation. So, to avoid this risk, Benhabib stresses the idea that any panhuman ethic can be achieved through interaction with collective concrete others instead. Collective concrete others-ordinary people who live in a community.