Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What Is ‘Strong Objectivity’?

Abstract For almost two decades, feminists have engaged in a complex and charged conversation about objectivity. Its topics have included which kinds of knowledge projects have it, which don’t, and why they don’t; whether the many different feminisms need it, and if so why they do; and if it is possible to get it, how to do so. This conversation has been informed by complex and charged prefeminist writings that tend to get stuck in debates between empiricists and intentionalists, objectivists and interpretationists, and realists and social constructionists (including poststructuralists).