The Material of Knowledge: Feminist Disclosures [Paperback]

Susan Hekman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 19, 2010

Susan Hekman believes we are witnessing an intellectual sea change. The main features of this change are found in dichotomies between language and reality, discourse and materiality. Hekman proposes that it is possible to find a more intimate connection between these pairs, one that does not privilege one over the other. By grounding her work in feminist thought and employing analytic philosophy, scientific theory, and linguistic theory, Hekman shows how language and reality can be understood as an indissoluble unit. In this broadly synthetic work, she offers a new interpretation of questions of science, modernism, postmodernism, and feminism so as to build knowledge of reality and extend how we deal with nature and our increasingly diverse experiences of it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is no other existing book that does exactly what Hekman does here, which is work across a very broad and diverse range of fields and figures to draw together the best of what's out there rethinking the relationship between the material and the linguistic." —Shannon Sullivan, Penn State University

(Shannon Sullivan, Penn State University )

"This is a truly feminist book in the best sense; it does not simply adopt, or abandon, paradigms but engages with what's worth saving. It is a genuinely new way of thinking about the relation between matter and science." —Claire Colebrook, University of Edinburgh

(Claire Colebrook, University of Edinburgh )

About the Author

Susan Hekman is Professor of Political Science and Director of Graduate Humanities at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is author of Private Selves, Public Identities and The Future of Differences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025322196X
• ISBN-13: 978-0253221964
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #844,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars an important intervention that could also function as an introduction May 17, 2010

By D. McInerney

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's not often that you read something like this. Not only does it introduce the reader to the works of Latour, Foucault, Althusser, and others on knowledge and materialism in a very accessible way, but in its synthesizing of these theories it goes beyond that task to constitute an important intervention in its own right.

This is a book that deserves to be read by every thinking person who believes that the point of philosophy is not simply to understand the world, but to change it.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Material of Knowledge: feminist disclosures November 3, 2012

By J. Congues

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I loved this book. Primarily because of its ability to help me to understand more about the links between Foucault and feminism - and for that matter how many theorists work in qualitative research. They all draw on one another but tweak things! Loved the notion of disclosure and probably need to read that more closely for my own work.