Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T01:19:06.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Identity Politics and Dialectical Reason: Beyond an Epistemology of Provenance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Abstract

Identity politics is important within feminism. However, it often presupposes an overly subjectivist theory of knowledge that I term an epistemology of provenance. I explore some works of feminist standpoint theory that begin to address the difficulties of such an epistemology. I then bring Sartre's account of knowledge in the Critique of Dialectical Reason to bear on these difficulties, arguing that his work offers tools for addressing them more adequately.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alarcón, Norma. 1990. The theoretical subject(s) of This bridge called my back and Anglo‐American feminism. In Making face, making soul. See Anzaldúa 1990.Google Scholar
Albrecht, Lisa, and Brewer, Rose M. eds., 1990. Bridges of power: Women's multicultural alliances. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Anzaldúa, Gloria ed., 1990a. Making face, making soul. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.Google Scholar
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1990b. Bridge, drawbridge, sandbar or island, lesbians‐of‐color hacienda alianzas. In Bridges of power: women's multicultural alliances, ed. Albrecht, Lisa, and Brewer, Rose M.Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Barnes, Hazel E. 1990. Sartre and Sexism. Philosophy and Literature 14: 340–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beauvoir, de Simone. [1949] 1989. The second sex. Trans. Parshley, H.M.New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Brown, Elsa Barkley. 1988. African‐American women's quilting. In Black women in America. See Malson et al. 1988.Google Scholar
Collins, Margery, and Pierce, Christine. 1973. Holes and slime: Sexism in Sartre's psychoanalysis. Philosophical Forum 5: 112–27.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1990. Black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Combahee, Collective. 1983. The Combahee River Collective statement. In Home girls: A block feminist anthology. See Smith 1983.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Ann. 1989. Blood at the root: Motherhood, sexuality and male dominance. London: Pandora Press.Google Scholar
Fullbrook, Kate, and Fullbrook, Edward. 1994. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean‐Paul Sartre: The remaking of a twentieth century legend. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Haraway, Donna. 1991. Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harding, Sandra. 1986. The science question in feminism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hartsock, Nancy. 1983. Money, sex, and power: Toward a feminist historical materialism. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Howells, Christina. 1992. Conclusion: Sartre and the deconstruction of the subject. In The Cambridge companion to Sartre, ed. Howells, Christina. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Bernice Reagon. 1983. Coalition politics: Turning the century. In Home girls: A black feminist anthology. See Smith 1983.Google Scholar
King, Deborah K. 1988. Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a black feminist ideology. In Black women in America: Social science perspectives. See Malson et al., 1988.Google Scholar
Kline, Marlee. 1989. Women's Oppression and Racism: A Critique of the ‘Feminist Standpoint.’ Socialist studies/Etudes socialistes: A Canadian annual 5: 3764.Google Scholar
Kruks, Sonia. 1990. Situation and human existence: Freedom, subjectivity and society. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kruks, Sonia. 1991. Simone de Beauvoir: Teaching Sartre about freedom. In Sartre alive, ed. Ronald, Aronson, and Van Den Hoven, Adrian. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Laing, R. D. 1969. The Divided self. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Le Doeuff, Michèle. [1989] 1991. Hipparchia's choice. Trans. Selous, Trista. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister/outsider. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Lorraine, Tamsin. 1990. Gender, identity, and the production of meaning. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Malson, Micheline R.et al. eds., 1988. Black women in America: Social science perspectives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Moraga, Cherrie, and Anzaldúa, Gloria eds., 1983. This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Emily. 1987. The woman in the body: A cultural analysis of reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1846] 1978. The German Ideology. In The Marx‐Engels Reader, ed. Tucker, Robert. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Phelan, Shane. 1989. Identity politics: Lesbian feminism and the limits of community. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal thinking. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean‐Paul. [1943] 1966. Being and nothingness. Trans. Barnes, Hazel E.New York: Washington Square Press.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean‐Paul. [1952] 1965. Reply to Albert Camus. In Situations. Trans. Eisler, Benita. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean‐Paul. [1960] 1968. Search for a method. Trans. Barnes, Hazel E.New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean‐Paul. [1960] 1976. Critique of dialectical reason, Vol. 1. Trans. Sheridan‐Smith, Alan. London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean‐Paul. [1985] 1991. Critique of dialectical reason, Vol. 2 (unfinished). Ed. Elkaïm‐Sartre, Arlette. Trans. Hoare, Quintin. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Simons, Margaret. 1986. Beauvoir and Sartre: The philosophical relationship. Yale French Studies 72: 165–79.Google Scholar
Smith, Barbara ed., 1983. Home girls: A black feminist anthology. New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris M. 1990. Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris M. 1994. Gender as seriality: Thinking about women as a social collective. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 19(3): 713–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar