Abstract
Dialogue between feminist and mainstream philosophy of science has been limited in recent years,
although feminist and mainstream traditions each have engaged in rich debates about key concepts and
their efficacy. Noteworthy criticisms of concepts like objectivity, consensus, justification, and discovery
can be found in the work of philosophers of science including Philip Kitcher, Helen Longino, Peter
Galison, Alison Wylie, Lorraine Daston, and Sandra Harding. As a graduate student in philosophy of
science who worked in both literatures, I was often left with the feeling that I had joined a broken family
with two warring factions. This is apparent in the number of anthologies that have emerged on both sides
in the aftermath of the “Science Wars” (Gross, Paul R., Norman Levitt, and Martin W. Lewis, eds. 1996;
Koertge, Noretta, ed. 1998; Sokal, Alan and Jean Bricmont. 1998; etc.)
Depending on one’s perspective on the Science Wars, the breadth of illustrative cases and examples
found in Science and Other Cultures can either give more ammunition for the battle, or grounding
for a much needed treaty of accord. The most important feature of this book is that it does not
merely claim that science is only political, and it does not merely dismiss science as a social
phenomenon to be deconstructed using the standard postmodern conceptual tools. Instead, the
collection illustrates ways in which postcolonial analysis and multicultural examples can enrich our
understanding of “good” science and ethics. Here, the concept of “strong objectivity” from
Harding’s earlier books is fleshed out through a variety of cases. The anthology is the culmination
of a series of research activities funded by a National Science Foundation grant to the American
Philosophical Association. The grant, under the auspices of the NSF Ethics and Values Program,
sponsored fourteen summer research projects and thirty-six presentations at four regional APA
meetings.