Date of Award

1991

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Philosophy

Supervisor

B.G. Allen

Language

English

Abstract

Struggles to carve out places in the academy for feminist studies have been long and hard-fought. Now, it seems, those places have been secured. However, just when academic feminist studies seem to be coming into their own, some feminists perceive a widening schism between feminist theories and feminist practices. These feminists maintain that much of what preoccupies academic feminists is remote from any feminist political practices beyond that sphere.

Academic feminists, I believe, must take these criticisms seriously. Therefore, in this thesis, I suggest a way of bridging that divergence. Measuring the merit of theories on the basis of their usefulness to feminist practices, I assert, would repair the disconnection between feminist theories and practices. Reconstructing feminist theoretical practices in that way assumes a pragmatic view of truth. Appropriating pragmatism, I argue, would allow feminists to acknowledge valuable lessons realized in feminist political practices while remaining on the cutting edge in the academy.

McMaster University Library


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