1 / 3

Social Constructionism: Knowledge is a Creation Based on Social Interests

Social Constructionism: Knowledge is a Creation Based on Social Interests. Science is not the objective accumulation of facts, because “facts” are answers to questions framed in incommensurable theoretical frameworks ( paradigms )

linnea
Download Presentation

Social Constructionism: Knowledge is a Creation Based on Social Interests

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Social Constructionism: Knowledge is a Creation Based on Social Interests Science is not the objective accumulation of facts, because “facts” are answers to questions framed in incommensurable theoretical frameworks (paradigms) Epistemological Relativism: knowledge varies in conceptual schemes with different criteria for justification, truth, & rationality • Communal interests determine how to evaluate different paradigms Thomas Kuhn

  2. The Gendered Character of Knowledge • Feminine characterizations of knowledge aim at explanation and understanding instead of an adversarial determination of “facts” removed from their contexts • This does not imply that women are “naturally” different from men (e.g., more sensitive or less objective); such essentialism ignores how even gender is a social construct • What is knowable is determined by relations of power in a discipline Lorraine Code Michel Foucault

  3. Constructivist Confusions: Alan Sokal • To say that “physical reality is a social and linguistic construct” is to confuse: • objects in the world with what we say about them • how we get knowledge with its reliability • knowledge about the world with social, political, or ethical uses of such knowledge • Reply: objective/subjective distinctions are naïve, unjustified, and even dangerous

More Related