Our trust in the word of others is often dismissed as unworthy, because the illusory ideal of "autonomous knowledge" has prevailed in the debate about the nature of knowledge. Yet we are profoundly dependent on others for a vast amount of what any of us claim to know. Coady explores the nature of testimony in order to show how it might be justified as a source of knowledge, and uses the insights that he has developed to challenge certain widespread assumptions (...) in the areas of history, law, mathematics, and psychology. (shrink)

Ten years ago, Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, and Jill Tarule wrote Women's Ways of Knowing, a book the New York Times Book Review called "a framework for future research on women, knowledge, and identity". In the decade that followed, their theory of women's psychology, development, and ways of knowing has been applied in several fields, from the social sciences to the humanities, women's studies, education, psychology, and law. But even as it was embraced by readers, Women's Ways of (...) Knowing also became the center of a fierce debate within academic circles. Now, in fourteen illuminating new essays, the original authors and invited contributors explore how the theory introduced in Women's Ways of Knowing has developed and shifted over the years and how it has been received, applied, used, and abused. The authors, and others, respond to critics of the original theory. The essays also expand the original argument beyond gender and knowing to address the complicating factors of race, class, and culture. (shrink)