Abstract
M.A.
This dissertation explores the possibility of an alternative notion of reason, one that
draws on certain values articulated in feminist theory as well as on the opportunities
opened up by the historically created relationship between women and reason.
Employing certain writings, the initial aim of the argument is to render problematic the
conventionally accepted conception of reason by demonstrating the existence of a
powerful intellectual current that associates women with, among other things, the
bodily and emotional, thereby placing them outside of reason. Because of the immense
importance attached to the tenets of reason, this state of affairs profoundly affects the
position of women and is, of course, something they have extensively commented on.
Thus, following on the problematization of reason along gender lines, women are
afforded the opportunity to set out their views on reason and the relationship between
it and women. From this it emerges, broadly speaking, that some women want to be
integrated into the prevailing standard of reason, while others hold that women have
access to some distinct reasoning capability that it sometimes even regarded as being
superior to the masculine standard.
The points of view outlined above are then, in the penultimate chapter, brought into
critical dialogue with postmodernism. This serves two main purposes: it illustrates the
flaws in certain feminist views on reason and, very importantly, makes the point that
reason cannot be meaningfully separated from questions concerning power, subjectivity
and language. In conclusion, and drawing on a range of insights developed through the
course of the dissertation, it is said that the conventional single standard of rationality
is in large measure fictitious and that it should be abandoned in favour of a more multicentred
way of looking at the world. Women are encouraged not to attempt to merely
move from their positions at the margins of reason to the centre, but to explore the
possibilities offered by the margins, possibilities that might enable them to lead the way
in terms of being agents in creating more acceptable standards of knowledge and
interaction.