Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims evaluate arguments for and against epistemic relativism. It focuses on relativistic themes in different forms of social epistemology. The relativist regarding epistemology insists that epistemic judgments or beliefs, about knowledge or justification, for example, are true or false, justified or unjustified, only relative to systems of standards. For the relativist there is more than one such system, and there is no neutral way of adjudicating between them. The book looks at the problem of relativism in relation to four “foundational issues” in social epistemology: disagreement, norms of inquiry, experimental epistemology and reliabilism. It provides different strands of research at the intersection of feminist epistemology, social epistemology and philosophy of science. Being concerned with the effects of gender on knowledge production and certification, feminist epistemology has contributed important insights to understanding the social dimensions of knowledge.