Thinking and its place. Epistemological considerations on feminist stand point theories and border thinking

Stefan Pimmer
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5405-2434
Universidad de Buenos Aires-Conicet, Argentina
stefan@pimmer.info

Abstract:

In modern science, the link between place and knowledge appear to be neglected as an epistemological issue. Contrary to that negligence, feminist and postcolonial studies bring to the table the manifold ways how place influences knowledge production. However, their ideas differ in crucial aspects. Those aspects do not only relate to their corresponding thematic emphasis, but also to how we conceive the link between place and knowledge. This article intends to show those differences in two of the most prominent strands within feminist and postcolonial studies —the feminist standpoint theory and Walter Mignolo’s border thinking. We aim to show the feminist standpoint stresses the mediated nature of any knowledge production, whereas border thinking argues there is a more direct link between place and thinking that ends up confining knowledge to its birthplace.

Keywords: feminist standpoint; border thinking; epistemological determinism.