ABSTRACT
The importance of the particular and the personal in feminist accounts of ethics and epistemology has suggested to some that feminist epistemologies are irrationalist or at best relativistic. Feminist theorists have emphasized the importance of interpersonal relations and particular connections in making ethical and epistemic judgments. They have thus sometimes been accused of ignoring the importance of general principles. 1 Although it has sometimes been true in feminist debates that emphasizing the particular is set in opposition to the development of general theories, it is often the case that such emphases are advanced as part of a broader reconception of personal relations and knowledge. What is especially insightful in some recent feminist treatments of epistemological issues is the recognition that adequate understanding, both personal and political, often depends upon the actual bringing about of alternative social relations and political structures. Although such discussions are not often advanced as theories about knowledge, in some recent feminist discussions of personal and political relations there exist resources for rethinking and answering some general epistemological and metaphysical issues. 2
